Yemen Government Forces Strike Houthi Positions Near Mocha, Attempting To Retake Red Sea Port

Fighting intensified across several fronts in Yemen as government forces carried out air attacks on Houthi positions in attempts to retake Mocha, days after the Iran-backed group captured the strategic port city and tightened its grip on the Red Sea shipping lane.

“Fighting has intensified on several fronts in Yemen”

Al Jazeera

Yemeni government news agency Saba reported that “the armed forces destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed members of the Houthi terrorist militia backed by the Iranian regime” near Mocha, and the government’s spokesperson Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said they also struck Houthis’ “vehicles and members” on the Mocha-Dhubab road, 11km (7 miles) from the city.

Al Jazeera

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (supporters of God), accused Saudi Arabia of launching more than 100 air attacks on Yemen within the past 48 hours, while Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry said Saudi Arabia was carrying out air attacks mainly against Houthi advances.

On Sunday, Sultan al-Arada, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and governor of Marib, said government forces that withdrew from the west coast are currently regrouping in Marib and will return to the battlefield.

Al Jazeera also reported that the government forces are trying to recapture territory near Mocha from the Houthis, with clashes described on the outskirts of Madhab, a government-held city considered to be the economic hub of Yemen.

The Yemeni armed forces said its warplanes carried out more than 20 air raids targeting Houthi sites, gatherings, and vehicles, missile launch platforms, and a communications system in districts of al-Zahir, Dhi Naïm, al-Sawda, and Makirass in al-Bayda governorate, while the Houthis announced shelling a military base in the Sharurah area of Saudi Arabia.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of conducting 129 airstrikes over the past 48 hours on Taiz, Marib, Hodeidah, al-Jawf, Saada, Ibb, and Hajja, and he said the group carried out ballistic missiles and drones operation targeting weapons warehouses and command-and-control rooms at the Sharurah military base.

Al Jazeera

In the front lines surrounding Taiz city, the army said the aviation targeted with three airstrikes the Houthis’ sites and camps at Black Hill (al-Sawda) and Jabal al-Mun’afim in the Mahbat front, and it said drones destroyed a Houthi column in the al-Wazi’iya front in Taiz.

Both sides pledged to continue the battle, and Sultan al-Arada said government forces that withdrew from the western coast are reorganizing and will return to the fight one way or another.

The Houthis, through deputy prime minister for defense and security Jalal al-Ruwishan, told Al-Masirah TV that they are determined to equal siege with siege and escalate with escalation.

As the Houthis advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, Al Jazeera reported that the rebel group seized the last towns on the coast and pushed onto islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, strengthening Houthi control over the route linking the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea.

“The Houthis have taken control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast”

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera said the Houthis reached the coastal town of Mocha at dawn on Thursday and moved offshore to seize nearby islands, and it reported that Yemeni government sources told Reuters that Houthi fighters had reached Dhubab while government forces withdrew from Perim Island.

A Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, said in a statement posted on X that the operation resulted in the expulsion of Saudi-backed forces from six districts covering a total area of 5,400 square kilometres (2,100sq miles), and in the striking of seven military brigades comprising 38 brigades, with hundreds killed, captured or wounded.

The Independent described the escalation as a threat to a 2022 ceasefire and said the advance alarmed markets and Yemeni civilians who fear a return to devastating civil war.

The Independent also reported that a senior government official said its forces will return to the Red Sea coast and fight back, quoting Sultan al-Arada describing the collapse of government forces in Mokha and elsewhere on the west coast as “painful and regrettable.”