Houthis claim Mocha as campaign for Yemen's Red Sea coast intensifies

Saudi Arabia launches as many as 40 airstrikes on Houthi targets

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have seized Mocha, a key port in Taiz province, as part of a concerted campaign to take full control of the country’s Red Sea coast. The Guardian described the clashes as the most serious wave of fighting with the Saudi-backed government in years.

The conflict data monitor ACLED estimated 276 fatalities over a five-day period. Fighting continued afterward, with the Houthis claiming control of Mocha, the inland city of Hays and the Khalid ibn al-Walid camp, which The Guardian described as the largest military base in the region. One Houthi-linked estimate suggested rebel forces had gained more than 2,320 square miles, or 6,000 square kilometers, of land.

Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, commander of the Yemeni government forces, said he had organized a strategic retreat south of Mocha to regroup in a secure location. “The armed forces in the western coast paid a heavy price – martyrs and wounded – over the past days as they confronted the Houthi attack planned by Iran, and supported by it,” Saleh said.

The clashes have ranged across Ad Dali, al-Bayda, Marib, Shabwah, al-Jawf, Hodeidah and Taiz. During the initial days of the renewed conflict, the Houthis were forced back in some areas as battles on multiple fronts overstretched their resources and fighter numbers.

Saudi Arabia launched as many as 40 airstrikes on Houthi targets on Thursday. The kingdom continued using its air superiority against Houthi positions, while government sources acknowledged the rebels’ ground advances along the coast and missile strikes on the strategic Red Sea islands of Zuqar and Hanish.

The latest phase of the escalation began after the Houthis attacked Saudi energy installations and southern cities with drones and ballistic missiles. Saudi military forces responded with at least 15 strikes between September 3 and 7.

The fighting raised questions about whether Saudi Arabia would activate the Mecca defence agreement and ask co-signatories Pakistan and Turkey to send forces. The pact is designed to be defensive and was considered unlikely to apply to Saudi military activities in Yemen.

Observers said a reduction in hostilities appeared unlikely as the conflict reached its most intense level since the UN-sponsored ceasefire of April 2022 ended major military exchanges. The Guardian reported that the Houthi campaign was seen as an attempt to open a second front in the Iran-U.S. war alongside the battle for control of Hormuz.

The London-based Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security thinktank, said the situation in Yemen was “spiralling out of control.” RUSI said the UN-recognized Yemeni government was opening new fronts against the Houthis in the hope of applying more pressure than the rebels could withstand.

“A reduction in hostilities any time soon seems unlikely, as both sides continue to escalate with the goal of inflicting enough damage to the other side to force a compromise,” said Sherwan Hindreen Ali, Yemen analyst for ACLED. “In terms of military capability, both sides are more equal compared to the immediate period prior to the 2022 ceasefire when the Houthis had the upper hand.”

Ali said fighting would remain focused on the Red Sea coast fronts in Hodeidah and Taiz, “where both the Houthis and the Saudi Arabia-Yemen government have a vested interest in claiming the whole territory to deprive the other side of effective control of the strait of Bab al-Mandab.”

The Guardian speculated that the Houthis would hope political divisions inside the Yemeni government, reflected in the lack of an integrated military, would slowly give them an advantage. The United Arab Emirates, which had backed the separatist Southern Transitional Council in southern Yemen, withdrew its financial and military support at the turn of the year. Southern forces have refused to fight outside their own region.

Footage released by Saudi-backed forces showed a fighter firing at Houthi rebels in Taiz province. Separate footage released by Saudi-backed forces showed a rocket being fired during fighting in the province.

The Guardian characterized seizure of the Red Sea coast as a “strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia and the US” and said it would take “Iran and its proxies closer to full control” of two chokepoints for western shipping on opposite sides of the Arabian Peninsula: the Bab al-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

The Guardian reported that the Houthis aimed to use control of more of the Red Sea coast south of Hodeidah to pressure Saudi Arabia and the United States into a deal lifting the U.S. blockade on Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf. Donald Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he did not expect the war with Iran to end before the U.S. midterm elections at the start of November.

The current escalation developed over several months. A senior Houthi delegation flew to Tehran in July for the funeral of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The Guardian described the Houthis as having a longstanding, complex alliance with Iran.

The delegation returned on an Iranian plane that Saudi Arabia refused to allow to land in rebel-controlled Sana’a. Saudi Arabia instead bombed the runway, leading the Houthis to announce a Red Sea naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in what the group described as “a blockade for a blockade.”

The July 20 blockade announcement was followed by a strike on Saudi Arabia’s Jazan refinery on July 25 and a strike on a tanker off Yanbu on August 24.

The fighting contributed to oil rising above $100 a barrel after weeks when it traded closer to $80, The Guardian reported. Saudi Arabia has become reliant on the Red Sea trade route after Iran throttled shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fighters loyal to the Houthi authorities took part in a recruitment drive in Sana’a on Thursday. Images accompanying The Guardian’s report also showed the aftermath of Houthi strikes on Mocha during the previous month and smoke billowing from an Aramco oil depot near Abha after a Houthi attack. Video footage reportedly showed Houthi attacks on Saudi-backed forces in al-Jawf province.