Alwaght- Military conditions in Yemen are witnessing fast-moving developments these days. Fighting between the Ansarullah and Saudi-backed mercenaries is raging across multiple front lines, from Marib in the north to Taiz and further south. Meanwhile, Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been holding the capital Sana'a anduch of the northern Yemen since the 2014 revolution, says Saudi Arabia has launched a wave of airstrikes over the past 48 hours targeting Sana'a, Saada and Amran provinces.
Amid this patchwork of battlefronts, one thing stands out: Ansarullah is not waging this war simply by seizing towns and villages. Control of energy resources, high ground, key roads and strategic chokepoints is what binds these disparate fronts together, and what could ultimately decide their fate.
Seen through that lens, Marib in the north, Taiz in the center-west and Lahij in the south, though geographically far apart, have become interlocking pieces of a single equation. On one side of it lie Marib's oil and gas reserves and on the other, the western coast, Al-Mokha and Bab-el-Mandeb.
Marib, battle for energy and geography
Concentration of the fighting on Marib is important because this province is the stronghold of the Ansarullah's adversaries in the north and one of the key energy centers in the country. Its oil and gas and infrastructures have turned Marib into one of the most important potential revenue resources for any side controlling it.
Seen in that light, the battle for Marib is not merely a military contest over a single province. Controlling it could deliver three things at once: crippling one of the opposition front's most important strongholds, securing access to energy resources, and creating political leverage for future negotiations.
Access to Marib's oil and gas has been an Ansarallah objective for more than a decade, Yemeni political commentator Saddam al-Haribi told Al Jazeera. He stressed that if the movement takes the province, it could use control over energy resources as leverage to extract more favorable terms in any future mediation effort.
Marib's importance, then, must be measured as more than a battlefield victory. Seizing the province could deal a serious blow to the structure of Yemen's state power, a development Adam Baron, a fellow with the New America think tank's Future Security program, described to Al Jazeera as a "defining moment" in terms of Yemen's internal dynamics. He cautioned, however, that the fight for Marib will be hard, because the Aden-based government's forces will treat it as an existential battle.
Marib's significance is hardly limited to energy. Its geography places it astride the main corridor linking northern Yemen to southern provinces including Shabwa and al-Mahra. Control of Marib, as a result, could shape the ability to move forces and reach southern areas.
Therefore, A victory in Marib would carry a propaganda payoff alongside its military and economic effects. A major win on this front could redraw the balance of power in Yemen's internal conflict in the Ansarullah's favor, suggesting that Sana'a's forces are poised to dominate the majority of the country's territory, and are capable of even bigger victories ahead.
Taiz, north-south-coast confluence point
On another front, Taiz has emerged as one of the war's most critical battlegrounds, a province whose importance stems above all from its geography and road network.
Taiz sits between Ansarullah-controlled territory in the north and west and areas held by their opponents in the south, and the roads running through it link different parts of Yemen to one another. The province lies at the center of a web of routes connecting Al-Mokha, the western coast, Aden and other areas under anti-Ansarallah control. Control of Taiz, then, could directly shape supply lines, troop movements and even commercial transport.
What makes Taiz an especially sensitive front is its mountainous terrain. The province's highlands offer observation points and command over surrounding roads, villages and valleys, which is why seizing a single hilltop or mountain pass can shift the military balance on a much larger scale.
That importance has become clear in the recent fighting. Clashes erupted on the al-Akroud front in southeastern Taiz before spreading to areas including Bani Bakri, Humayr, al-Kadaha and Jabal Han. Sources aligned with Aden claim to have repelled attacks by Sanaa's army and popular forces over the past few hours, but the evidence points to significant Ansarullah advances in the province.
The real significance of the Taiz developments, however, is best measured in relation to Bab-el-Mandeb.
Al-Mokha and Bab-el-Mandeb: A ring that regionalizes the equation
Making sense of Taiz developments is hard without regarding western coast fightings. In recent weeks, Ansarullah forces have moved to consolidate their grip on coastal areas, and the pressure on Taiz appears to be part of that same strategy.
Within this framework, the capture of Al-Mokha takes on particular weight. Al-Mokha sits along the Red Sea coast, on the route stretching toward Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait that is connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and one of the world's most vital shipping lanes. The strait is roughly 20 kilometers wide, and before the conflict escalated, about 12 percent of global trade passed through it.
For Ansarallah forces, then, the goal is not simply reaching the coast, but it is building geographic and military depth to protect newly seized coastal territory. If Taiz can serve as a staging ground for opposing forces, coastal areas under Sana'a's control will remain vulnerable to counterattack. Cutting Taiz's links to Al-Mokha and the south is therefore part of the push to lock in coastal gains.
Ansarullah, in effect, are pursuing a logic of "connecting the fronts", meaning that seizing coastal territory without securing the roads leading to it yields only a fragile prize. The pressure on western and southwestern Taiz, and the drive to sever supply routes, must be read as an extension of the coastal campaign, not as a set of separate battles.
Taiz heights: the hidden side of battle for the coast
One of the most important pieces of this equation is the high ground west of Taiz. In Yemen's mountainous geography, holding the coast without controlling the heights overlooking it can prove difficult. That is why mountainous areas such as al-Kadaha, Rasan, Jardad and Kahboub have taken on added significance.
What this shows is that the war in Yemen is not merely a contest over cities, but it is a war over geographic geometry. Roads, high ground, passes and coastline together form a network whose control can expand one side's ability to move troops and supplies while shrinking the other's capacity to counterattack.
From this angle, the area that might be called the inner depth of Bab-el-Mandeb takes in parts of Hudaydah, Taiz and Lahij. The roads and highlands there dictate how forces move, and locking down control of them can ease pressure on newly-liberated coastal areas.
Lahij, the southern ring of equation
In southern Taiz, the Lahij province is getting into the calculus. In recent days, clashes over Noman mountains have been going on and both sides have reported advances in this mountainous area, which due to its overlooking of Al-Waziyeh and Al-Madhraba, and closeness to the Taiz routes with the south is of great importance.
Lahij's importance lies mainly in its proximity to Aden and the southern regions. That is why the spread of fighting southward could carry consequences beyond a limited shift in the lines of contact. Under such conditions, control of Lahij's highlands can sharpen the ability to monitor and control key routes.
Taiz and Lahij, that is why, should be seen as two linked fronts. Both sides will try to secure transport and communication routes while denying the opposite side new room to maneuver.
Ansarullah's adversaries fragmented
On the other side, Aden's forces are hobbled by structural problems including internal disputes, the absence of a unified command and a tangle of competing political and regional agendas. Those divisions have badly eroded the opposition's ability to field an effective force against Ansarallah advances. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have recently pushed to unify their forces, particularly in Hadramawt, in a bid to open a front from the east and relieve pressure on the coastal region.
Taken together, a look at the map of conflict shows that the scattered fighting does not mean Ansarullah lack a coherent war strategy. Sana'a is out to assemble a connected network of energy resources, roads, highlands, ports and strategic chokepoints. If such geographic continuity takes shape, the war's balance could spill beyond the bounds of a domestic conflict and reshape the equations of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and international trade routes.
