Houthis take Mokha, 75 kilometres from Bab al-Mandab

Yemen's Houthi movement now holds the Red Sea port city of Mokha after Saudi-backed government forces pulled back on Thursday, 10 September. Military sources and witnesses told AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera that the National Resistance Forces, commanded by Presidential Leadership Council vice-chairman Tareq Saleh, left the city at dawn and moved south toward Dhubab, about 46 kilometres down the coast.

Mokha sits roughly 150 kilometres south of Houthi-held Hodeidah and about 75 kilometres from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gate of the Red Sea. That strait carries a large share of Europe-Asia container traffic and, since the Iran war throttled the Strait of Hormuz, a growing share of Saudi crude that used to leave the Gulf. Brent rose toward $105 a barrel after the city changed hands, according to the Financial Times.

The Houthis did not immediately issue a formal claim of capture. Their Supreme Political Council said clashes had "ceased in the western coast districts after the expulsion of Saudi enemy mobilisations," Houthi-run Al Masirah television reported. Footage circulated by the same channel showed fighters inside the town. Independent verification of every clip was not possible.

Yemeni government sources told Reuters the city had fallen. Information minister Moammar al-Eryani told CNN the same. Tareq Saleh said government units, including the National Resistance, the Giants Brigades, Nation's Shield forces and Taiz formations, had taken dead and wounded over several days of attacks. He ordered an alternative command centre in a safer location "in consultation with the Arab coalition command and the Presidential Leadership Council."

The fighting that produced the withdrawal did not begin on Thursday. Correspondent reporting from Taiz, including Al Jazeera's Maha Ali, described pressure from three axes starting on 3 September: western Taiz, southern Hodeidah, and Mokha itself. Combat was heaviest on the city's outskirts. A key variable was the National Resistance withdrawal. Local sources said it was unclear whether the pullback was a regrouping, a command decision, or a collapse under fire.

The conflict data monitor Acled counted 276 fatalities over five days earlier in the same offensive. The Houthis also claimed the inland town of Hays, the Khalid ibn al-Walid camp, and districts of Al Khawkhah. AFP, carried by France 24, recorded a civilian movement toward Aden as government lines gave way in Hays and Al Khawkhah.

Island claims remain disputed. A Yemeni military source told AFP that Houthi fighters seized Zuqar Island, about 80 kilometres north-west of Mokha, after rockets and a boat-borne assault. Houthi sources speaking to dpa said they had reached the Hanish and Zuqar group. Government sources told the same agency the islands were still with the Resistance Forces. That gap matters because the islands sit in the approaches to Bab al-Mandab.

Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi asked Arab states and other governments to help protect Yemen's coasts and restore state control. Foreign minister Afrah al-Zouba wrote to the United Nations Security Council asking for a firm stance on the western coast. Neither request has produced a public Council decision as of Friday morning.

The Houthis said they posed no threat to international shipping while repeating a threat against Saudi vessels. Riyadh has used the Red Sea as an export route after Hormuz became too dangerous for much tanker traffic. Wolfgang Pusztai, a defence analyst quoted by Al Jazeera, called the loss of Mokha a very significant blow because it lets the Houthis cut the road from the port to Taiz and squeeze government supply lines that run through the harbour.

Mokha is an old coffee port. For two centuries European and Ottoman traders used it as a Red Sea warehouse. The modern city is small. Its military value is the combination of a usable quay, a coastal highway, and proximity to the strait. A few weeks before the fall, more than 25 Houthi rockets hit the harbour while commercial ships were unloading, port director Abdel Malek Al-Sharaabi told CNN. The navigation bridge of a sunken vessel was still visible in August photographs.

Saudi aircraft struck Houthi positions through the first week of September. The Guardian recorded at least 15 kingdom strikes between 3 and 7 September. Those raids did not hold the city. Government forces transferred equipment south of Mokha as part of what military sources described to dpa as a reorganisation, not a planned handover.

For India and other Asian importers the practical question is whether insurance and routing through the Red Sea tighten again. For Riyadh the question is whether an Iran-aligned force now sits on both the Gulf and Red Sea flanks of the peninsula. For the Yemeni government the question is whether Dhubab holds. The next 75 kilometres of coast will answer more than any statement issued in Sanaa or Riyadh this week.