Yemeni Government Launches Offensive to Reclaim Territory, Responding with Strikes on Oil Facilities

[Anchor]

As the Yemeni government declared a large-scale military operation to reclaim territory from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government. With Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and consecutive tanker attacks compounding the situation, the drums of war are beating louder across the Middle East.

Reporting from Washington, this is correspondent Lee Han-seok.

[Reporter]

Heavy gunfire has erupted once again in Yemen, a tinderbox of the Middle East.

The Yemeni government has officially announced the launch of a large-scale military operation to retake territory controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

[Majid Al-Nuzaili / Spokesperson, Yemeni Government Forces : We announce the beginning of the battle for liberation. This decisive battle aims to recover all national territory (from the Houthis) and expand complete national sovereignty.]

It is reported that up to 100,000 ground troops and pro-government militia forces will be deployed with the aerial support of Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi rebels immediately retaliated.

The Houthis claimed they fired ballistic missiles and drones targeting oil facilities belonging to Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco, which supports the Yemeni government.

Maritime routes have also frozen over due to blockades and attacks.

In the Strait of Hormuz, the world's largest crude oil transit route, an oil tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile, damaging its engine room.

This is already the fourth reported attack this month, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also announced independently that it has struck at least seven oil tankers over the past five days.

Meanwhile, Iran reiterated that it will not open the Strait of Hormuz until seven conditions are met, including the lifting of the U.S. maritime blockade and the return of funds.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that if the U.S. accepts the demands, the strait could be opened within a week, but warned that if military action is taken, it will respond more strongly than before, even raising the possibility of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

As the civil war in Yemen faces the crisis of an all-out war, fears of a global energy supply chain crisis and an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East are reaching an all-time high.

(Video by Oh Jung-shik | Video Editing by Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.