Heavy fighting has broken out again in Yemen's Taiz province between the Houthi militia and troops loyal to the internationally recognized government, as the civil war intensifies against the backdrop of the Iran war, military sources said on Thursday.
The fighting saw the militia fire more than a dozen rockets at government troop positions along the Red Sea coast, according to military sources.
State-run broadcaster SABA reported "fierce fighting" on several fronts in the west of Taiz and that the army shot down several drones.
Several government soldiers were killed, according to local reports.
Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis have been fighting the Saudi-backed government for more than 10 years.
An unofficial ceasefire had been in place since 2022 and the war seemed to have reached a stalemate. There were no major skirmishes, but there was also no prospect of an end to the war.
"No war, no peace," was how British Yemen expert Helen Lackner summed it up.
Fresh airstrikes hit the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a in July, and since then fighting has been escalating in Taiz and the provinces of Marib and Hodeidah.
The Houthis attacked targets including the port of Mokha, near the Bab al-Mandab (Gate of Tears) Strait, using rockets and drones.
Should the Houthis capture the city, they could intensify attacks on commercial shipping in the strait or bring traffic there to a halt using explosive-laden boats. The Bab al-Mandab, like the Strait of Hormuz, is a key shipping route for global trade.