DUBAI — Yemen’s internationally recognized government said Monday its forces had recaptured the Red Sea port city of Mokha and key positions around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Iran-aligned Houthis, a claim the Houthis flatly denied as fighting spread toward Saudi Arabia.
None of the battlefield claims could be independently verified by CNBC or Al Jazeera.
‘Dawn of Yemen’
The Saudi-backed government’s military said it took Mokha after “fierce fighting” and also launched a “strategic offensive” on the capital, Sanaa, which the Houthis have held since 2014, Al Jazeera reported. Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced the operation, named “Dawn of Yemen,” on Sunday, vowing to retake all remaining Houthi-held territory, according to Arab News.
Government forces also said they had taken the Dhubab district, including its airport, and positions that cut supply lines to Bab el-Mandeb, according to Arab News and the government-aligned Saba news agency, which said the Homeland Shield Forces and the Giants Brigades were involved. The Saudi-led coalition said 100 fighter jets were supporting government forces and that it had secured “air protection” over Bab el-Mandeb, spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said, according to Al Jazeera.
The Houthis pushed back. Fuad Sinan, the group’s deputy governor of Taiz, posted a video Monday evening that he said was filmed in Mokha. “We are currently roaming around in the streets of Mocha city,” he said, rejecting reports it had fallen.
Attacks on Saudi airports
Late Monday, the Houthis said they had targeted airports and military sites across southern Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said Tuesday that attacks on airports in Jazan and Najran caused three minor injuries and some damage, CNBC and Al Jazeera reported. The Houthis also claimed strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and the Aramco refinery at Rabigh, which Riyadh did not confirm.
Defense and foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met in Riyadh on Monday and agreed to activate “deterrence measures” under a mutual defense pact and rapidly deploy forces to the kingdom. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman said the alliance “reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of our countries in confronting the heinous attacks against the kingdom and holy sites.”
Why the strait matters
Mokha sits about 75 kilometers, or 46 miles, north of Bab el-Mandeb, the narrow passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, CNBC reported. Historically famous as a coffee port and the origin of the word “mocha,” the city was seized by the Houthis in a rapid offensive in September that also took islands and territory around the strait, choking off a second major oil route.
The first is already closed. The wider conflict began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, and Iran has since closed the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude traded around $100 a barrel Tuesday morning. Analysts at ING said markets will likely stay nervous until there is progress toward a U.S.-Iran deal, warning that “the risk of further escalation remains very real.”
Hisham al-Omeisy, a senior Yemen researcher at the European Institute of Peace, told Al Jazeera that a true turning point would require the government to retake cities in Yemen’s heartland, such as Taiz, al-Bayda and Ibb, not just the coast.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). File photo of a U.S. Navy sailor aboard USS Jason Dunham in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, October 2018; not related to current fighting.
Sources: Al Jazeera; CNBC; Arab News.
This article was produced with AI assistance and is based on reporting from Al Jazeera, CNBC and Arab News.