Yemen presidency announces military drive to retake all territory seized by Houthis

Yemen’s leader announced on Sunday the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the group made fresh gains on the ground, effectively encircling a government-held city. The announcement sets an ambitious goal for the embattled government, which recently lost swathes of the country’s Red Sea coastline and areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait — a chokepoint for international shipping — after a lightning offensive by Houthis. Yemen’s government has struggled to roll back the surge, even with the military support of Saudi Arabia, where the Houthis…