Reported by Al Jazeera
The Houthis suffer losses but also inflict pain on government forces and Saudi Arabia. And there are no signs that either side is easing up, analysts say.
Sanaa, Yemen – When news broke on October 5 that Yemen’s internationally recognised government was launching a major new offensive to take control of territories held by Houthi fighters, Mohammed Ahmed began to prepare for the worst.
Sanaa has been under Houthi control since late 2014 after the Houthis seized the capital city in the initial phase of a civil war that has ebbed and flowed for more than a decade.
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But when it announced Operation Dawn of Yemen , the new offensive, last month, Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition, declared they would aim to retake control of all parts of the country held by the Houthis, including Sanaa.
“A state of worry and uncertainty overwhelmed my family and me,” Ahmed, a 40-year-old resident of Sanaa, said.
Ahmed was not concerned about which side would emerge victorious. Instead, he feared the consequences of hostilities near or inside Yemen’s most densely populated city.
A month after the operation began, Ahmed’s anxiety has eased as Sanaa remains largely calm, apart from recurring air strikes.
Meanwhile, the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God), have scored territorial gains in other provinces, including Taiz and Lahij in southern Yemen, where fighting has not ceased.
But while Yemenis such as Ahmed said the initial momentum surrounding Dawn of Yemen has faded, experts and researchers view the operation as marking a new phase in a war of attrition that shows no signs of easing.
Turki al-Goblan, head of the Saudi Daimumah Center for Studies, told Al Jazeera that the Houthis have survived in previous years by adapting to strikes and leveraging complex geography, clandestine supply and concealment networks, and the use of civilians as human shields.
That survival strategy is now under stress. The Dawn of Yemen offensive has “dealt a blow to the three pillars of this strategy”, al-Goblan said.
The first pillar, according to him, is…