Warplanes carried out 20 strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen's Taiz province over three hours on October 2, 2026, a spokesperson for the internationally recognised government said. The targets included fighters, vehicles, equipment and troop movements, according to Reuters. Fighting had spread across the province, where six military sources told the agency that authorities had designated roads into the area as military operational zones and ordered them closed.
About 19 roads were affected, including the main route from southern Sanaa to Taiz, Reuters reported. The escalation also extended across the Saudi border. Riyadh said on October 1 that the Houthis had attacked a Medina power distribution station supplying the Prophet's Mosque. A Houthi military source denied that accusation through the group's Saba news agency and also rejected an earlier Saudi allegation involving Mecca.
Yemen's government had been reviewing the Taiz fighting before the air-strike announcement. Its separate, government-run Saba agency said Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi held consultations on October 1 with council members Abdulrahman al-Mahrami and Mahmoud al-Subaihi. The defence minister, chief of staff, Fourth Military Region commander and local military and security commanders briefed him on fighting across the province and responses to reported Houthi attacks and infiltration attempts.
A subsequent IOM displacement assessment covering September 27 to October 3 recorded 3,633 households, or 21,798 people, displaced at least once during that week. Taiz received 2,838 of those households, mostly moving within the governorate, while 491 moved into or within Lahj and 159 into or within Aden. Within Taiz, Ash Shamayatayn received 1,350 households, Jabal Habashi 650 and Al Maafer 534, showing where the largest recorded movements were concentrated.
