Houthis open a ground assault in western Taiz after 14 ballistic missiles

Houthi forces launched a ground assault on government-held positions in western Taiz on 3 September after a missile and drone barrage that government military media put at 14 ballistic missiles plus several drones. The missiles were aimed at areas around Mocha in Taiz and al-Khokha in Hodeidah. Government air defences said they shot down drones on the Taiz front and along the western coast. The ground attack focused on the Maqbanah mountains and on infiltration routes into Al-Ahtoub, Al-Tuwair, Al-Kadha and Jabal Ghabari. Government forces said they stopped the incursions and answered with artillery.

The two sides are publishing different maps. Government-aligned sources said eight soldiers, including two officers, were killed and that dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or wounded. Wikipedia's current-events compilation, citing Al Jazeera, put the day's dead at 18 Houthi fighters and 13 government troops. Sanaa-aligned Yemen Press Agency said Ansarallah had taken al-Kadha and al-Aqma, that Tariq Saleh's forces were falling back toward Mocha, and that some of Saleh's commanders had left for the UAE. It said the next objective was Mocha port. No official statement from Sanaa accompanied that claim.

Mocha is the reason the mountains matter. The Red Sea port has been under repeated Houthi missile and drone attack since 9 August. Port director Abdulmalik Al-Sharabi told Al Jazeera later that month that operations had stopped, that more than 1,500 workers had lost their jobs, and that 16 people had been killed and 22 wounded. At least six merchant ships were hit in that wave, including a vessel on 11 August that left three Pakistani crew dead. The road from Taiz to al-Makha is the land link that keeps the government and the UAE-backed Giants and Tariq Saleh units supplied on the coast. A Houthi push through Maqbanah and Al-Kadha is an attempt to cut that road.

The April 2022 truce has been a reference point more than a fact on this front. Missile fire at Mocha through August already ended the idea that the west coast was quiet. Thursday's combination of a 14-missile opening and a night infantry attack is the first serious ground try since that truce to change the line rather than just punish the port. If government forces held, the line stays where it was and the story is ammunition expenditure. If Sanaa's claim on al-Kadha is real, Mocha becomes a port with a threatened hinterland.

Independent confirmation from the ridgelines will take time. What can be stated now is the government missile count, the named sectors, the existence of a ground assault, and a casualty range that runs from eight government dead to a combined 31. Mocha's commercial stoppage is already months old. The new question is whether the road that feeds the town is still open at first light.