Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces fight over control of a key Red Sea gateway
2-MIN READ2-MINAgence France-PressePublished: 12:57pm, 7 Sep 2026The toll from days of fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen climbed past 300 on Sunday, as hundreds of families fled their homes to escape the violence.
Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces said that 84 of their troops were killed between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, mostly in missile attacks. Four Houthi military sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period.
The two sides have been fighting for days over control of a gateway to the Red Sea, in the deadliest flare-up in the Arabian Peninsula’s southernmost country since a 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July.
Families fleeing fighting in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi in Taiz governorate in Yemen’s southwest took refuge at Al-Bareen camp for the internally displaced on Saturday.
And on Sunday, Agence France-Presse journalists saw displaced people with mattresses, livestock and other belongings setting up shelters in another camp in the area.
“The shooting came at us from above and from below,” said Rawdhah Hasan, a woman displaced from Maqbanah.
