Houthis seize Red Sea port of Mokha, edging closer to key shipping strait

Yemen's Houthi movement has seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha from Saudi-backed pro-government forces, according to military sources and witnesses.

The capture leaves the Iran-backed group just 75km from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to a shipping route linking Asia and Europe, David Gritten reports for the BBC.

The Houthis said they posed no threat to international shipping, but repeated their threat to target vessels from Saudi Arabia, which has relied increasingly on the Red Sea for oil exports since the war involving the US and Israel effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

The escalating conflict between the Houthis, Yemen's government and Saudi Arabia has contributed to a surge in oil prices. Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed and thousands displaced since the Houthis launched an offensive in Yemen's south-west a week ago.

A Saudi-led coalition has carried out air strikes on Houthi-held areas of western Yemen in support of pro-government forces, while the Houthis have launched missiles and drones at cities and oil facilities in southern Saudi Arabia.

Residents of Mokha said Houthi fighters entered the city after fierce overnight clashes with pro-government forces on Wednesday, prompting many families to flee. One resident told the BBC that the takeover came without warning and that panic spread through the area as people fled scenes of injured residents left without help in the streets.

Another said Houthi fighters were patrolling the city on Thursday while government offices and shops remained closed, adding that residents did not know what the group – whose formal name is Ansar Allah – intended to do next, and that fear for personal safety was widespread.

Many displaced families are said to be heading east towards Aden, seat of Yemen's internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council and government. One woman described fleeing with her children with nothing but the clothes they had on, saying everything had been destroyed within an hour and that no warning had been given.

There has been no immediate confirmation of Mokha's capture from the Houthis themselves, though the group's Supreme Political Council said in a statement that clashes had ceased in the western coast districts following the expulsion of what it called Saudi enemy mobilisations, according to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV.

Tarek Salah, leader of the pro-government National Resistance Forces, said he had relocated his west coast command centre to a safe location, adding that his forces had paid a heavy price in recent days against what he described as an Iranian-planned and -supported Houthi offensive.

A Yemeni military source told AFP that Houthi fighters had also seized Zuqar Island in the Red Sea, roughly 80km north-west of Mokha, following a barrage of rockets and a ground assault carried out using boats.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, has called on Arab states and the wider international community to help protect Yemen's coastline and restore state control. The Houthis' Supreme Political Council asserted its right to defend Yemen's sovereignty and territorial waters, while seeking to reassure the international community that Red Sea navigation remains safe. However, the group's own humanitarian operations coordination centre said its embargo on Saudi ships remained in force.

A Houthi military spokesman said Saudi warplanes had carried out 64 strikes across the western provinces of Taiz, Hudaydah, Marib and Jawf in the preceding 24 hours; there was no immediate comment from the Saudi military. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said on Wednesday evening that it would respond to a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks on the south-western Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha and Jazan.

On Tuesday, the Houthis launched dozens of drones and missiles at southern Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 civilians and sparking fires at several oil facilities that temporarily halted operations, Saudi authorities said. The group said the attacks were retaliation for a series of Saudi air strikes on Houthi-held territory, including one on a prison in the town of Hazm in Jawf province on Monday that it said killed at least 23 civilians.

The Saudi-led coalition has backed Yemen's government against the Houthis for more than a decade of civil war. A four-year informal ceasefire began to break down in July, when the Houthis announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea – attacks the group said were retaliation for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in Houthi-held territory, and for an air strike on Sanaa airport it blamed on the kingdom.