Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels are expanding their front lines by actively attempting to seize control of the southern highlands, following their grip on the Red Sea coast, in a move aimed at isolating the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.

According to Reuters on the 21st (local time), the Houthi rebels are recently trying to secure key strategic high ground, including the Kahboub mountainous area spanning Taiz and Lahij provinces, to cut off the south controlled by government forces from the Red Sea coast.

Clashes are concentrated in the mountainous areas on the outskirts of Al-Wazyah in Taiz province and Ras al-Ara on the Indian Ocean coast, located between the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance of the Red Sea seized by the rebels last week and government military bases in the southern city of Aden.

This is the southern tip of the rugged Yemeni plateau with an average altitude of 2,000 to 2,500 meters, serving as a strategic zone overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Aden, a major stronghold in the south, and Taiz in the interior.

Yemeni military sources analyzed that the Houthi rebels are trying to secure their rear around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and establish a new front line by controlling the highlands.

Through this, the strategy is to defend the exposed positions in Dubab and Perim Island along the Red Sea coast that they already captured during their advance.

Saudi Arabia has recently carried out hundreds of airstrikes to block the rebels' advance into the highlands, but as government forces have scattered on the ground, even overwhelming air power has failed to break the rebels' momentum.

According to the United Nations (UN), the intensified fighting has resulted in about 700 deaths and displaced more than 120,000 people so far.

Additionally, dpa news agency, citing military sources, reported that Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels are also engaged in fierce battles in the oil-rich Marib province.

Marib province, concentrated with oil and gas fields and serving as a vital nexus connecting multiple regions, has been a site of intense armed conflict between the two sides since the Yemeni civil war began with the Houthi armed uprising in 2014.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)