Yemen’s government says its forces took mountain positions in Al Jawf, as Houthis press an attack on Raghwan

A burned out military vehicle on a rocky mountain top in Al Jawf, in a frame from a video shared on X by Yemen Shabab TV on November 4, 2026

A burned out vehicle on a mountain top in the Dahidha range of Al Jawf, in a frame from a video Yemen Shabab TV shared on X on November 4, 2026, saying it showed Houthi vehicles destroyed after government forces took the area. Mereja Media could not verify where or when it was filmed. Photo: Yemen Shabab TV (@TVyemenshabab) via X

Yemen’s government said on Wednesday that its forces had captured a chain of mountain positions in Al Jawf province, while accounts on both sides described a heavy Houthi attack on neighboring Raghwan.

The spokesman of the government’s armed forces said units of the First and Third Emergency Divisions had taken Houthi positions at Umm Lafifa, Qurun al Sabir and Dahidat al Aqir as part of an operation the government calls “Dawn of Yemen,” in a statement published by the Ministry of Information. He said that across all fronts the army had carried out 1,322 strikes on Houthi positions and capabilities, killing or disabling about 340 fighters and commanders and destroying or damaging 114 vehicles and other military equipment. The statement did not say over what period, and the figures could not be checked.

Yemen Shabab TV, a channel that backs the government, shared video on Wednesday evening that it said showed the Dahidha mountains after their capture, with the burned wrecks of Houthi vehicles on the peaks. Supporters of the government celebrated online. Hussein al Fadhli (@Huseinalfdl), a writer and political analyst, listed the four positions he said had been taken east of Al Hazm, the provincial capital still held by the Houthis, and said the range was large and cut Houthi supply lines. “Al Hazm, here we come,” his hashtag read, a slogan many government supporters repeated.

The picture was less clear by nightfall. Saleh Afrar (@saliheafrar), an account that posts news from southern Yemen, wrote that government forces had withdrawn from the Al Jawf desert and the Dahidha mountains toward Raghwan district after what he called a big Houthi attack on Raghwan, which lies in Marib province to the south. Another news account, Yemen Urgent (@yaman_events), described a dangerous Houthi escalation on the Raghwan front, with a wide attack by the group and government forces massing in the Al Jawf desert and the Dahidha area. Mereja Media could not confirm whether the government still held the positions on Wednesday night. The fight for Raghwan went on into Thursday. Accounts that back the Houthis claimed their forces had taken the center of the district, while Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera shared video on Thursday that they said showed government fighters in Raghwan denying the Houthi claim. Al Arabiya’s correspondent Mahmoud al Humaidi said government forces were clearing Houthi pockets between Raghwan and Majzar and that warplanes had struck reinforcements near the Al Jawf junction. Mereja Media could not verify either side’s account.

The Houthis gave their own account of the day’s fighting in Al Jawf. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said Houthi forces fired six ballistic missiles at gatherings of what he called Saudi forces in the east of the province, according to a summary of his statement by the news site Drop Site. He made the claim alongside claims of strikes inside Saudi Arabia, including on Riyadh’s main airport, which Saudi Arabia did not confirm.

There was also a report of a deadly Saudi strike on an allied commander on the southern coast. Radar 360, an Arabic news platform, said on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources it described as informed, that a Saudi air strike in the Ras al Ara area of Lahj province killed the commander of the coast guard and anti smuggling forces at the ports there and four of his companions, after he had seized a boat loaded with weapons and was returning to Ras al Ara. The claim of the Saudi strike and the coast guard commander’s death rests entirely on those unnamed sources. Neither the Saudi led coalition nor the government commented on the report, and Mereja Media could not verify it.

The fighting in Al Jawf adds a northern front to a war that has been heaviest around Taiz and in Lahj in recent weeks. The government statement said its forces and the Popular Resistance had made gains on several axes in Taiz and repelled Houthi attempts to retake lost positions. The Yemen Daily News site published a military analysis on Wednesday of why, in its third month, the Houthi offensive on Taiz has stalled.

The human cost has been heavy. The World Health Organization said last week that more than 9,000 people had been killed or wounded in Yemen since August and that 276,000 people had been displaced, as Mereja Media reported. Taiz officials have also called for an investigation into Houthi shells they suspect carried toxic substances, and Sanaa shared photos of bomb fragments after an air strike that it said killed 12 people from two families in Taiz province.

For the Houthis, Al Jawf matters because it borders Saudi Arabia and the oil and gas fields of Marib, and for the government it is a route toward the Houthi heartland in Saada and toward Sanaa, which government supporters online named as their goal after Al Hazm, as Hussein al Fadhli wrote in a second hashtag, “Sanaa, here we come.”

Yemen’s government says its forces took mountain positions in Al Jawf, as Houthis press an attack on Raghwan

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