Per Reuters (citing four military sources), Ansar Allah's fighters are now within 80 km of Aden — the closest approach since they briefly entered the city in the early days of the war in 2015. They've taken the entire Al-Maqatirah district in Lahj after a three-day assault, and as of Monday are fighting government troops at a military camp on the entrance to Tur al-Bahah, one of Aden's main approaches.
The strategic point isn't the distance to Aden itself — it's the shape of the board:
— The advance threatens the mountain range overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving Ansar Allah a real outflanking option against government positions there. This builds on their September push along the Red Sea coast, which already seized territory near the strait — the chokepoint the Gulf and Washington care about most.
— It also cuts at the main road between Aden and Taiz. Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been under Ansar Allah's encirclement since early October, with all entry points cut and a full humanitarian squeeze (fuel, food) now in effect per UN and Dropsite reporting.
Read it together: the
"internationally recognized"
government — which is Saudi's proxy in all but name — is being compressed into an Aden-Taiz axis it can no longer defend comfortably. After a decade of war, with a Saudi-Emirati air campaign that failed to break Ansar Allah's military, the Houthis are now the force dictating tempo. Every Saudi strategic bet in Yemen has failed on its own terms: no unified Arab army, no lasting government control, and a growing strategic asset on the strait they've been paying to contain.
This is what a decade of sustained resistance looks like on the map. The center of gravity in Yemen is no longer in doubt.