The Houthis have surrounded Yemen's third largest city, Taiz

In recent days, the Houthis have surrounded Taiz, the third largest city in southwestern Yemen, where the internationally recognized government of the state is now located. This was reported on October 17 by the Financial Times (FT) newspaper.

"The rebels <...> have in recent days surrounded <...> Taiz, which connects the coast with the rest of southern Yemen, access to which could pave the way for advancing towards Aden," the article says.

According to local residents, the fighting began so quickly that they had no way to evacuate to safer areas. The situation was complicated by the fact that the main entrances to the city, which had become front lines, were blocked. Against the background of the fighting, the prices of food, medicines and fuel have increased significantly.

The Houthis have gone from guerrillas to geopolitical players. What you need to know about the movement

On October 15, Yemeni Houthis from the Ansar Allah movement attacked the Saudi military operations headquarters at the Maashiq Palace in Aden, which is controlled by internationally recognized authorities. The attack also targeted weapons depots connected to the headquarters.

Nikolai Sukhov, a leading researcher at the IMEMO Center for Middle East Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said on October 8 that the further escalation of the conflict in Yemen would largely depend on the scale of Iran's support for the Houthis and the retaliatory increase in aid to Saudi Arabia from its allies.