Are U.S. Strikes on Yemen Prelude to a Ground Operation?
2025-04-2239 view
The U.S. military carried out nearly 300 air strikes and missile attacks on Houthi positions between mid-March and the third week of April, focused on undermining the group’s military and economic infrastructure. The campaign has prompted speculation that the Yemeni army may launch a ground operation against the group—a hypothesis supported by a build-up of government forces at the front lines, especially in Ma’rib.
The American campaign has focused on Houthi air bases in Sanaa Governorate, along with the ports and airport of Hodeidah on Yemen’s western coast—including the Ras Issa oil terminal, a vital Houthi economic asset. The bombing has extended across much of northern and western Yemen, including the governorates of Saada, Al-Bayda, Taiz, Al-Jawf, Hajjah, and Ibb. It has notably targeted radar-fitted air defense systems, ballistic missile and drone launchers, weapons depots, and command and control centers, suggesting a desire to degrade the group’s military capabilities.
The few leaks from the Houthis indicate that the attacks have also targeted its personnel, killing or wounding dozens, including commanders and missile and drone experts.
The attacks coincided with a round of indirect negotiations in Oman between the U.S. and Iran, suggesting that the Trump administration draws no link between the two issues. Rather, it appears to be driving to weaken the Houthis in order to secure the vital international maritime corridor through the Red Sea.
It is quite possible that shifts on the battlefield in Yemen will pave the way for a ground attack by the Yemeni army, taking advantage of the confusion in Houthi ranks as a result of the American strikes, as well as the sense that Iran, buckling under U.S. economic and political pressure, is struggling to get supplies to the Houthis.
Such a scenario could see Yemeni government forces launch an attack to oust the Houthis from the country’s Red Sea coast. The so-called Yemeni National Resistance, affiliated with the Presidential Leadership Council and led by Tariq Saleh, nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been preparing for such an operation for some time.
Yemeni tribes are also exerting pressure on the government to launch a military operation that would not stop at the coast, but would seek to push the Houthis out of the capital and seize back control of the state. Tribes allied with the Yemeni government have started openly threatening to act on their own account unless the government responds to their demands. Given the collapse of the political process, despite Saudi and Iranian efforts, all this suggests that Yemen is likely to see a return to fighting.
