Fresh video circulating today shows armed Houthi fighters roaming freely inside and around the sprawling mansion of Sultan al-Barakani, the Saudi-backed speaker of Yemen's House of Representatives since 2019. The property sits in Wadi al-Barakani, in the Al-Ma'afir district of Taiz governorate, a region that has become one of the hottest flashpoints in Yemen's reignited civil war. Reports confirm the Houthis overran the estate today as part of a broader push toward Al-Turbah city, with fierce clashes breaking out across the surrounding countryside. Al-Barakani, a longtime figure in the General People's Congress, now joins a growing list of government-aligned officials whose homes have fallen into rebel hands.

This is not an isolated incident. The Houthis have a long, well-documented history of storming and confiscating the properties of lawmakers and officials loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government, and this latest seizure fits that same pattern. More importantly, it signals just how much ground the group is gaining in central Yemen, where its fighters have been grinding toward Taiz city itself, threatening to cut it off from government-held territory to the south. With Saudi Arabia and allied forces scrambling to respond, the fall of a sitting speaker's mansion is a stark symbol of how fragile the government's hold on the region has become.