The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that Yemen's Saudi-backed internationally recognized government said on Sunday it was launching a major military campaign to recapture all areas of the country controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says the government's armed forces would press the offensive "until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia," Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address. The Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, have held Yemen's capital Sanaa and vast parts of the in the heavily-populated northwest since 2014. The movement launched a surprise offensive last month which captured the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait and 150 kilometres of coast on the Red Sea in a matter of weeks, giving the Houthis new leverage over the international shipping route. As the Yemeni government, known as the Presidential Leadership Council, made its announcement, the Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area of Saudi Arabia. They claimed the attacks caused major fires and were in response to what they said were 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes in Yemen in the past 12 hours.