Middle East updates: Yemen government forces retreat, Houthis free captured troops

Yemeni government forces say they are withdrawing from an area near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to focus on a defence of their main base in Aden as the Houthi rebels released 600 government soldiers.

The retreat is a major setback for the Saudi-backed military campaign in southern Yemen against the Houthi rebels.

The announcement signalled the apparent end of a six-week government counteroffensive to reclaim the coast near the mouth of the Red Sea, seized by the Iran-aligned Houthis in September in a lightning advance that squeezed oil exports.

Sunday’s announcement of a government retreat raises the prospect of new Houthi advances towards Aden, and underscores the predicament faced by Saudi Arabia in trying to stop the Houthis’ drone and missile attacks on the kingdom.

The government forces have been based in Aden on the southern coast since 2015 after the Houthi movement seized the capital Sanaa.

“The Southern Armed Forces announce the implementation of a redeployment operation for its forces from Dhubab Airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate,” the main military force fighting for Yemen’s government in the south of the country said in a statement.

“This step is taken based on the priority of securing the capital Aden and the neighbouring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats.”

There was no immediate response from the Houthi rebels or from Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government’s main international ally.

The Houthi rebels on Sunday unilaterally released 600 soldiers from Yemeni government forces who had been captured during fighting along the border with Saudi Arabia in 2018 and 2019.

The release was announced at a ceremony in Sanaa, the capital controlled by the insurgents since 2014, where Abdulqadir al-Murtada, head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners Affairs, presented the initiative.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed the release.

In such unilateral operations, unlike negotiated exchanges, the ICRC acts solely as a neutral intermediary, verifying detainees’ identities, consent and medical condition before their transfer.

It does not determine who is released or how many people are included.

One of those released was Malik al-Hakami, 29, who was captured in 2018 and said he was looking forward to returning home.

“My mother is waiting for me but she doesn’t know I’m going to see her today,” he told the EFE news agency.

Al Hakami said he had been captured alongside about 2000 fellow soldiers, most of whom had already been released.

He also expressed resentment over what he described as the abandonment of prisoners by their own side.

“No one (from the army) asks about us,” he said.

At the ceremony, al-Murtada described the operation as the largest unilateral release since the war began.

He said the Houthi rebels had previously freed another 2612 detainees in five separate batches without demanding reciprocity.

“We are not seeking revenge nor are we responding in kind,” the Houthi official said, describing the release as a humanitarian gesture and accusing the Yemeni government of abandoning its troops and treating them as “expendable”.

Sunday’s release comes amid renewed fighting in Yemen following several years of relative calm after a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022.

Since late July, particularly in August and September, clashes between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government forces have intensified, with ground offensives, air strikes and missile and drone attacks.

The government has received military backing from Saudi Arabia since 2015 while the renewed fighting has increased pressure along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb.

with EFE