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Saudi-backed forces push to break Houthi siege of Taiz

Yemen's internationally recognised government has launched a campaign to retake Houthi-held territory, but the Iran-aligned movement has tightened its siege of Taiz, cut the city's road to Aden and kept its hospitals short of fuel and medicine.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 08:05

A view of Taiz city in southwestern Yemen, photographed from Al-Qahirah Castle. SharabSalam, Wikimedia Commons

Yemen's Saudi-backed government is pressing a counteroffensive to retake territory seized by the Houthis, but the Iran-aligned movement has tightened its grip on Taiz, cutting the city's main road to Aden and encircling it.

The campaign, announced on 4 October by Rashad al-Alimi, who heads Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, aims to retake all remaining Houthi-held land, including the capital Sanaa, which the group has controlled since 2014. Saudi-led coalition aircraft are backing Yemeni government forces.

The fighting has concentrated around Taiz in the south-west. After the Houthis cut the supply route linking the city to the interim capital, Aden, clashes in and around the province killed more than 70 people in a single day, sources on both sides said. Taiz city itself remains under government control but has long been besieged from the north, east and west.

The government's Taiz Military Axis said its warplanes carried out nine strikes on 13 October, five in the al-Dhabab area and four in al-Misrakh district, targeting Houthi fighters and equipment, while clashes continued on the al-Shaqab front south of the city. It gave no casualty figures.

Civilians are bearing much of the cost. A Yemeni rights group said it documented 43 Houthi violations in Taiz within 24 hours, including more than 180 mortar, artillery and rocket projectiles and drones, which it said killed five civilians and wounded 17 and damaged homes, vehicles and a mosque. Houthi shelling also struck al-Safwa Hospital, shattering windows and injuring at least one person. Yemen's health ministry said medicines, intravenous fluids and fuel at the city's medical facilities were nearing depletion.

The Houthis have kept up attacks on Saudi Arabia as well, saying they fired missiles and drones at oil sites belonging to the state company Aramco in Riyadh and the Khurais area. The renewed war has disrupted the Red Sea shipping route through the Bab al-Mandab strait, with Saudi oil exports already under pressure from Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

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File photo of the commercial district at Motijheel in Dhaka, where many businesses registered for VAT operate. Photo: ASaber91 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. ASaber91 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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The first-quarter deadline had been 15 October. In a notice, the revenue authority said the extension was granted in the public interest to give it time to make the changes needed in its electronic VAT system after amendments to the VAT law in the national budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The budget changes mean returns must again be filed within 15 days of the end of each tax period, replacing a provision that had allowed businesses to file and pay every three tax periods. The NBR said the switch required administrative adjustments to the eVAT platform, where most businesses file.

On 1 October, the NBR had already extended the July and August returns to 15 October under Section 64(3) of the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act, 2012, also without penalty, because many businesses had deferred filing while the quarterly rule was in force. Under the reinstated monthly system, the returns for July, August and September are now due together.

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NEXT STORY World

Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif defends emergency rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The prime minister and his brother Nawaz Sharif say the Centre was left with no choice but to act over security in the province, as parliament endorses the move and PTI challenges it in court.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 09:42Open this article

Official portrait of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (2017). Photo: Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has defended the federal government's decision to impose emergency and governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying the Centre had been "compelled" to act over security concerns after talks with the opposition failed.

Speaking in Gujranwala on Saturday, the prime minister said the government had made a "last attempt" to avoid the step, pointing to two rounds of talks between a joint government and Pakistan Peoples Party delegation and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The second round, on 3 October, ended without a breakthrough, although he said a draft agreement had been prepared under which PTI would call off its protest march.

"They had talks with them day and night, for 48 hours," Shehbaz Sharif said, adding that he had met Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and his predecessor, Ali Amin Gandapur, several times to offer the province support in fighting militancy.

The federal government imposed emergency and governor's rule in the northwestern province on 11 October, citing what it called the provincial administration's deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism. Parliament endorsed the measures this week at a joint sitting, where opposition lawmakers protested with placards reading "Emergency na manzoor" (emergency is unacceptable).

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, backed the move and said the intervention should have come much earlier. "This intervention was necessary to restore peace, improve governance and protect the interests of the people," he was quoted as saying, accusing PTI of using provincial resources for political confrontation with the federation.

Under the new arrangement, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi is running the province with the help of an 11-member advisory council, while Parliament exercises the powers of the provincial assembly. The federal law minister has said the arrangement will initially remain in place for six months. Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai blamed what he called faulty decisions by the country's rulers for the situation.

The measures followed weeks of tension after PTI announced a long march to Islamabad demanding the release of its jailed founder, Imran Khan, and access to his personal doctors. PTI has challenged the emergency and governor's rule in the Peshawar High Court, calling them unconstitutional and discriminatory, and says the province's elected government should be restored.

Amnesty International has raised concerns about reports of arbitrary detentions of political leaders and internet disruptions in the province, warning that emergency measures must not be used to suppress dissent and calling for independent oversight. Under Pakistan's Constitution, an emergency declared without a resolution from a provincial assembly must be approved by both houses of Parliament within 10 days, and governor's rule can be extended in two-month periods up to a maximum of six months.