Houthi fighters seized Yemen's Al-Maqatirah district and battled government troops at a main approach to Aden, the seat of the Saudi-backed government.
Iran-backed Houthi forces have pushed to within 80 km (50 miles) of Aden, the temporary capital of Yemen's internationally recognized government. The Jerusalem Post described the offensive as opening a new front in the US-Israeli war with Iran. Four military sources told Reuters of the advance on Monday.
The Houthis have not stood this close to Aden since the opening months of the war in 2015. That year they briefly entered the city before being pushed back with Saudi support.
On Monday, Houthi fighters and government forces clashed at a military camp guarding the entrance to Tur al-Bahah district, one of the principal routes into Aden, the sources said. The camp lies roughly 50 km from the provincial capital of Lahj and 80 km from Aden.
The sources said the Houthis opened their assault on government positions in Al-Maqatirah three days earlier and have since overrun the entire district. That mountainous terrain looks down on the road between Taiz and Aden, and government troops were forced to fall back toward Tur al-Bahah. The advance puts strategic positions along that road at risk and, according to the sources, offers the Houthis an opening to get around government forces holding the mountains above the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Houthi official Hamid Rizq posted a video he said showed the group's fighters entering Souq al-Rabouh in Maqatirah district. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage. Yemen's information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters also reported that Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been cut off since early October, after the Houthis severed its main road south to Aden. More than 100,000 people have been displaced, and the city faces shortages of food, fuel and medicine. The current push follows a Houthi campaign launched in September down Yemen's Red Sea coast, which captured ground along the Bab el-Mandeb, a major shipping lane and an export route for Saudi oil bound for Asia.
The Houthis have stepped up their attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government's backer. The Saudi-led coalition has answered with intensified strikes on Houthi positions inside Yemen.
Aden itself has already come under fire. On October 15, the Houthis fired ballistic missiles at the Al-Ma'ashiq presidential palace, where the government is based. Accounts of the toll differed. Arutz Sheva, citing Yemeni officials, reported that two security guards were killed and six others wounded. The Jerusalem Post reported that the government put the death toll at five.
On October 27, the Houthis claimed that a ballistic missile had struck Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia's largest oil refinery. Saudi authorities did not confirm the strike.
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