The military forces that support the Yemeni government recognized by the international community have managed this Monday to regain control of the strategic port city of Mocha, located on the Red Sea coast, which had fallen into the hands of the Houthi rebel militias almost a month ago.
According to the Yemeni official news agency Saba, the government troops have recovered the locality from the Houthis after an "intense combat." Militiamen from the Homeland Shield Forces, the Giants Brigade, and Tihama Resistance participated in the operation, with the support of Popular Resistance, which managed to break into the urban core of Mocha.
Military sources cited by Saba have indicated that the offensive has had air support and that clashes have been recorded on several fronts around the city, in which different types of weaponry have been employed. These clashes have resulted in deaths and injuries among the Houthi ranks, in addition to the capture of several insurgent fighters.
The Houthis had taken Mocha on September 10 as part of an offensive on the southwestern coast of the country, which allowed them to project their presence up to the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait, one of the most relevant maritime passages in the region.
On the same Monday, the Yemeni Armed Forces also announced the recovery of Bab el Mandeb, again highlighting the role of the Homeland Shield Forces and the Giants Brigade in these operations on the ground.
These advances are part of the counteroffensive launched on Sunday by the President of Yemen, Rashad al Alimi, whose declared objective is to expel the Houthi insurgents from the capital, Sana'a, after more than a decade under their dominance, and to defeat the Ansarollah movement, supported by Iran, throughout the territory.
The evolution of the conflict threatens to provoke the definitive collapse of the truce reached in 2022, after years of war, despite the mediation efforts of the United Nations to reach a political agreement that ends the conflict that began in 2014 and has plunged Yemen into one of the most serious crises at the international level.