Yemeni naval forces say they destroyed two Houthi explosive boats off the Red Sea coast
Yemen Herald News 
AL-KHAWKHA, Yemen — Yemeni government naval forces destroyed two Houthi booby-trapped boats on Saturday as they approached the western coast, the National Resistance said.
One craft was heading for the al-Fajra area south of al-Khawkha, in southern Hodeidah governorate. The other was heading for the port of Mokha.
The account rests on the National Resistance, a formation affiliated with the Yemeni armed forces. No independent confirmation of the interceptions has been published, and Yemen Herald could not verify them.
The Houthi movement has not commented on the claim.
Military media affiliated with the National Resistance said the operation coincided with a counter-movement by government forces in southern Hodeidah.
Major General Sadiq Duwaid, the National Resistance spokesman, said forces had thwarted Houthi attempts to advance overland while countering actions aimed at threatening maritime navigation. He said counter-offensive operations were continuing.
Duwaid did not say where the two boats were launched from, or whether anyone was aboard. The National Resistance reported no casualties in either interception.
Yemen Monitor carried the announcement on Saturday and attributed the account to the government side.
The claim follows a similar one two days earlier. Government forces said on Thursday, 3 September, that they had destroyed an explosive-laden boat before it reached the pier at Mokha.
Both sit inside a longer run of reported naval interceptions along the Red Sea coast.
On 31 August the National Resistance said coastguard units had confronted Houthi unmanned surface vessels near government-held islands on the preceding Sunday and Monday, Arab News reported.
Less than a day before that, the Yemeni army said drones operated by its 5th Military Region struck an explosive-laden Houthi drone boat that was being prepared to target shipping. Army footage showed a small white motorboat close to the shoreline before it was hit.
Separately, the National Resistance said its naval units intercepted a wooden dhow in the Red Sea carrying drone components.
The force listed control and guidance systems for explosive drones, live-video transmission and processing equipment, spare parts, precision electronics used for wireless drone communication, and antennas.
It said several sailors were arrested and that an investigation had linked them to a smuggling network run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran denies arming the Houthis.
The National Resistance said in a statement that the seizure showed Iran was continuing to smuggle weapons to the group in violation of international resolutions. Yemen Herald could not verify that account.
Brigadier General Mohammed al-Kumaim, a Yemeni military analyst, told Arab News that Iran was continuing smuggling operations without regard for sanctions. He said years of training and equipping Yemen’s coastguard and naval forces were beginning to produce results.
Al-Kumaim called for more international support for the Yemeni navy and coastguard.
The interceptions have come during a Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast that began on Thursday, 3 September.
The fighting has run along fronts in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, two governorates on the coast.
Yemen’s army said on Friday that it had recaptured al-Khazan and al-Makahna hills in Jabal Habashi district, west of Taiz city, Al Jazeera reported. The Houthis routinely dispute government accounts of territorial change.
Yemen Monitor said government forces had also retaken positions in Haifan and Hays and opened a front south of al-Garrahi. It attributed that to field reporting rather than to a named source.
The same report said Houthi movements in Maqbanah, Jabal Habashi and al-Kadhah had not produced a breakthrough. That assessment was the outlet’s own.
Casualty accounts from the offensive differ by source.
A Houthi source told Al Jazeera that more than 100 fighters from both sides had been killed since Thursday.
A Yemeni military official told Al Jazeera that 24 government troops were killed near the west coast. A second official reported 15 deaths in Taiz.
Medical sources in Houthi-controlled areas reported at least 42 fighters killed. AFP put the overall toll at more than 120 people killed since the advance began.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV broadcast funeral processions in late August for eight fighters buried in Sanaa and Ibb, Arab News reported. Among them were Hassan Hussein Ali Mutahar, a general, and Abdullah Abdul Latif, a colonel.
The group rarely discloses its battlefield losses.
Yemeni army footage released over the same weekend showed drones dropping explosives on Houthi vehicles and command centres in Marib, Dhale and al-Bayda, Arab News reported.
Civilians were killed and others wounded when a ballistic missile hit a restaurant in Mokha, state-run Saba TV reported.
A Yemeni official in Aden told AFP that the Houthis were seeking the hills overlooking Bab al-Mandab and Mokha before moving on the coast.
Mokha lies on the strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis held the port until 2017, when government forces and the Saudi-led coalition drove them out.
The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July.
The current escalation began in early August, when the group launched drones and missiles at government-held areas including Marib and Mokha, damaging the Mokha seaport, Arab News reported.
Explosive drone boats have been part of the group’s coastal arsenal for years. Houthi media broadcast promotional video of one such craft in June 2024.
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