Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council, announced the start of an offensive called Operation Yemen Dawn on Sunday. By Monday afternoon, Yemen’s military said its forces had taken Mokha, a Red Sea port city in western Taiz province in southwestern Yemen.
The claim remains contested. Unnamed Yemeni government and military sources told Reuters and AFP that government forces had reached only Mokha’s outskirts, while the Houthis denied losing the city or the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The operation is aimed at driving the Iran-backed Houthis from positions near the strait. The National Shield Forces, which are loyal to the Presidential Leadership Council, fought alongside the Southern Giants Brigades and other groups.
The government says Saudi air support has been substantial. A Saudi-led military coalition said its fighter jets had destroyed 324 ‘high-value’ targets since the offensive began.
Colonel Majed al-Nuzayli, a Yemeni military spokesperson, said the Southern Giants Brigades and National Shield Forces had encircled Houthi fighters in Dhubab. He said the advance had “secured” government control of the Bab al-Mandeb.
Government forces also captured an airport in Dhubab, which lies 45 to 47 kilometers south of Mokha. The fighting around the city and at several nearby positions was described as “fierce” and involved various types of weapons.
The military said on Monday that it had seized Mokha and a strategic town near the Bab el Mandeb Strait, a day after the launch of the Saudi-backed offensive. The Houthis had held Mokha since early September.
The fighting has also brought a response inside Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, said the group had targeted Saudi Aramco facilities in the capital, Riyadh. The Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Riyadh and the Khurais area of Saudi Arabia.
Saree said Houthi forces downed a Saudi reconnaissance aircraft in Taiz province on Monday. He also denied that government forces had made the claimed advance, while the Houthis said they had struck Riyadh’s airport and other locations in Saudi Arabia in retaliation. Two Saudi airports were attacked during the escalation, with injuries and damage reported.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said Saudi air strikes killed a schoolgirl and a woman in the Sanhan and Saawan districts of Sanaa on Monday.
Turkey and Pakistan then held an emergency meeting in Riyadh and agreed to rapidly deploy military forces to Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia. He said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting”.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa. The present battle places Mokha and the nearby coast at the centre of a wider contest over access to the Bab al-Mandeb, even as the position inside the city itself remains unclear.
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