New graphic video footage circulating across major social media platforms has drawn international attention to alleged war crimes committed by fighters aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government amid an ongoing counter-offensive against Houthi forces along the country’s strategic Red Sea coast. Three separate verified clips posted by open-source observers document repeated incidents of an armored military vehicle intentionally ramming and running over both armed combatants and unarmed surrendering fighters, raising urgent questions about compliance with international humanitarian law in the resurgent Yemeni civil war.
The first clip, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times since being posted, captures the armored vehicle accelerating directly into a gathered crowd of opposing fighters. While some men in the group carry rifles, two individuals are clearly seen with their hands raised above their heads in a clear gesture of surrender. The vehicle driver strikes both surrendering men without hesitation, before continuing over multiple prone men lying along the roadside. As the vehicle rolls over the motionless and twitching bodies on the ground, the driver and a passenger are heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great). Distinct thuds of the vehicle’s chassis impacting bodies are audible over the camera’s shaky recording, with intermittent small arms gunfire audible in the opening seconds of the clip – though it remains unclear which side initiated the shooting.
A second video shows another encounter along the same stretch of road, where a lone armed man stands on the ground aiming his rifle at the oncoming armored vehicle. After striking the first man, the driver turns the vehicle toward a group of men lying on the ground, who open fire on the vehicle as it accelerates toward their position. The third clip, filmed in a coastal beach area, captures the armored vehicle searching for additional targets after the earlier clashes. The driver spots an armed man lying alone on the sand, yells an Arabic insult translating to “this dog” before ramming and running the man over. After the impact, the vehicle comes to a stop, and at least one occupant opens fire on a group of unarmed men walking slowly along the beach who do not return fire. Multiple men can be seen falling to the sand after being hit by gunfire from the vehicle.
While independent outlet Middle East Eye has not been able to independently confirm the affiliation of the vehicle crew or the men targeted in the clips, leading open-source conflict analysts have assessed that the armored vehicle is operated by soldiers serving under Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. The disturbing footage emerged just days after the internationally recognized Yemeni government launched a large-scale counter-offensive to retake Red Sea coastal territory captured by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement just one month prior.
In an official announcement Sunday, Yemeni government officials confirmed the sweeping goal of the new campaign: to recapture all territory lost to Houthi control over the 12 years of ongoing civil conflict. By Monday evening local time, Saudi-led coalition forces and Yemeni government allies announced they had already seized control of the Arabian Gulf flank of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as well as the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha, which Houthi fighters captured from government forces in September.
The ramming footage is just one slice of the brutal, chaotic fighting unfolding across Yemen’s Tihamah Plain, the low-lying coastal strip at the center of the current offensive. Other videos circulating from the region show dozens of teenage boys, allegedly recruited as child soldiers by the Houthi movement, who have been captured by advancing pro-government forces.
Yemen’s devastating civil war first erupted in 2014, when Houthi fighters seized control of the capital city of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile in the southern port city of Aden. The following year, a Saudi-led military coalition intervened to back the Yemeni government, launching a large-scale air and ground campaign aimed at ousting the Houthis from power. A fragile UN-brokered ceasefire that brought a rare period of reduced violence to the country in 2022 collapsed in July of this year, allowing fighting to resume across multiple front lines.
The recent Houthi advance along the Red Sea coast has elevated the stakes of the conflict for global security, adding a new transnational dimension to the years-long civil war. After seizing the coastal territory, the Houthi movement declared a naval embargo against all commercial vessels owned by Saudi Arabia operating in the Red Sea – a critical global shipping corridor that carries a large share of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports. The strategic waterway has also become a new flashpoint in ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran, which have clashed repeatedly over access to the nearby Strait of Hormuz.