Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, have made rapid gains on the ground against Saudi-backed forces and have taken the Red Sea port city of Mocha, as the war in Yemen continues to escalate after it was reignited by Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport in July. Fighting has also continued in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province, where Ansar Allah said that it repelled Saudi-backed fighters.
The capture of Mocha brings Ansar Allah closer to full control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Ansar Allah officials said their control of more of the Red Sea coast wouldn’t further affect “navigation” in the region, as the blockade still applies only to Saudi shipping.
“We reassure you that our Armed Forces are disciplined and there is no source of danger to the security of navigation except from the reckless behavior of the Saudi enemy,” said Mahdi al-Mashat, who serves as the president of Ansar Allah-controlled Yemen, which includes the capital Sanaa and territory where most Yemenis live.
A day earlier, al-Mashat announced that he had granted “a presidential amnesty to those deceived into fighting on the West Coast front who lay down their arms and return to the right path.”
According to Al Jazeera, key to the rapid Ansar Allah gains was the withdrawal of the National Resistance Forces, a Saudi-backed coalition led by Tareq Saleh, nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who allied with Ansar Allah to oust former President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in 2014, and then split with the group in 2017, the same year he was killed.
Ansar Allah began the ground offensive on September 3 and initially cut off Mocha from the city of Taiz before advancing on Mocha itself. Hundreds of people have been reported killed in the clashes, including Houthi fighters, Saudi-backed militants, and some civilians. Thousands of civilians have also been displaced by the fighting.
Saudi Arabia has continued launching airstrikes against Yemen, with Al Masirah TV reporting 64 airstrikes over the past 24 hours in the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, and al-Jawf. The report said they were carried out from Saudi airbases by US-made F-15 fighter jets and French-made Typhoon aircraft.
Ansar Allah has launched extensive missile and drone attacks on southwest Saudi Arabia in response to recent airstrikes, including a strike on a prison in al-Jawf, Yemen, that killed at least 23 people, including a child and inmates. Yemen’s Mine Action Center reported that its experts documented bomb fragments at the prison and determined that the strike was carried out with a 2,000-pound US-made satellite-guided GBU-31 JDAM bomb.
