Yemen fighting kills more than 300 as Houthis cut the Taiz-Mokha road

Days of fighting in southwest Yemen have killed more than 300 combatants and some civilians since Houthi forces opened an offensive on Thursday, 4 September, toward the government-held port of Mokha and the approaches to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The figure is an AFP compilation from military and medical sources on both sides. It has not been independently audited.

Two officers with the Saudi-backed government forces told AFP that 84 of their troops died between midday Saturday and early Sunday, most of them in missile strikes. Four Houthi military sources said 57 of their fighters died in the same window. That 36-hour slice alone accounts for 141 of the running total. Fighting later eased before dawn on Sunday. Government units reinforced ground north of Hays. Houthi units pushed west of Taiz.

A government military official said the Houthis succeeded on Saturday evening in cutting the road that links Taiz to Mokha. Mokha has been under attack for weeks. The road is the land tether for a port that sits on the Red Sea. If it stays cut, resupply moves by sea under fire or not at all.

Displacement in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that about 1,790 households had been displaced by shelling and clashes in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi districts of Taiz governorate. Families arrived at Al-Bareen camp on Saturday with mattresses, animals and the material to put up a shelter. People already living in nearby displacement camps fled again. A second wave of displacement on top of an old one is the pattern this war repeats.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the secretary-general was deeply concerned and warned of political, economic and security damage for Yemen. That language is stock. The useful fact underneath it is the geography. Bab el-Mandeb is the southern gate of the Red Sea and the Suez route. A Houthi line that reaches those approaches during a war that already includes attacks on Saudi shipping changes the risk for every carrier that still uses the Red Sea instead of the Cape.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said a Saudi-owned Wing Loong II drone was shot down over al-Bayda and called it the third drone downed in 24 hours. Those claims sit in the same fog as the death tallies. They do show that the air file is open on both sides.

The ceasefire that ended in July

A 2022 ceasefire had limited the large battles. It collapsed in July. Sunday's numbers are the highest since that collapse. The Houthis have also declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia and attacked ships and territory. The land offensive toward Mokha is the matching move on shore.

Yemen's war has several armies and several patrons. The government line is backed by Riyadh. The Houthis are backed by Tehran. A push to the Red Sea during a US-Iran war in the Gulf is not a local quarrel that stayed local. It is a second strait, south of Hormuz, coming under the same alignment of forces.

The next hard numbers to wait for are hospital counts from Taiz, a confirmation of whether the Taiz-Mokha road reopens, and whether Mokha itself takes a direct assault. Until those arrive, the record is this. More than 300 dead in four days. A road cut. 1,790 households moved. A strait that Europe still treats as a commercial lane now has a land battle walking toward it.