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🚨 Major escalation: the Yemen offensive has now officially begun

This clears your threshold and materially changes what I reported yesterday.

Confirmed today, October 4: Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, has formally announced the start of military operations to retake Houthi-controlled territory. This means the operation we had been watching as a possible Saudi-backed offensive has moved from planning into execution.

The escalation is already substantial. The Saudi-led coalition says it carried out 97 targeting operations against Houthi forces around Taiz and the Tor al-Baha front using aircraft, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.

Why it matters: The objective is no longer simply retaliatory strikes. The stated goal is to recapture territory from the Iran-aligned Houthis and restore Yemeni government authority. If the offensive develops on the scale previously reported—potentially involving tens of thousands of Saudi-backed Yemeni troops—it ...