Yemeni government says its forces took Bab al-Mandab and Mocha as Houthis deny advance

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TAIZ, Yemen — Yemen’s government said on Monday its forces had seized the Bab al-Mandab strait area and the port of Mocha, claims the Houthis called baseless.

The announcement came as the government opened a named offensive against the Houthi movement.

Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, said the campaign was called Dawn of Yemen.

“Operation Dawn of Yemen has been launched to restore state institutions, liberate the capital Sana’a, and end the coup by the terrorist Houthi militias,” he wrote on his X account.

Armed forces spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili said troops had taken the Dhubab district in western Taiz province, along with its airport and the road linking Dhubab to Mocha.

He described the advance as a flanking manoeuvre. He said the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield Forces secured the ground around the strait.

Saba, the state news agency in Aden, carried the account. It said the Popular Resistance and the Tihama Resistance also took part.

The German Press Agency also reported the capture of Bab al-Mandab and Dhubab Airport. It said the government had declared the start of an offensive operation on Sanaa.

The Southern Giants Brigades said separately that it had begun what it called a “decisive” operation in the Bab al-Mandab area.

The Houthis rejected the account. A military source quoted by the Saba agency run from Sanaa denied any government advance toward Dhubab and said the reports were baseless.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify either side’s account of the fighting.

Al-Nuzaili said government forces had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on artillery and rocket positions, defensive fortifications, reinforcement routes and supply lines.

He put the number of targets at 1,122 across the governorates of Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz. He said 1,747 Houthi fighters had been put out of action and 364 vehicles and pieces of equipment destroyed or disabled.

The spokesman gave no breakdown of those figures. No independent source has published a count of its own.

Al-Nuzaili said hundreds of Houthi fighters were encircled at Dhubab. He said some had fled by boat and others had surrendered.

The Saudi-led coalition said it was supporting the offensive from the air. Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said 100 fighter jets were flying missions around the clock.

Al-Malki said the aircraft had destroyed 324 targets the coalition described as high value. He said strikes on moving targets were continuing.

Fighting reached the Houthi-held capital. Al Masirah, the movement’s television channel, reported attacks on Sanaa.

The Houthi health ministry said a woman was killed in Sanhan and a girl was killed in Sawan, on the outskirts of the city. It said seven other people were wounded.

Those casualty figures come from the Houthi authorities. They have not been independently confirmed.

Yahya Sarea, the Houthi military spokesman, said last week that Saudi aircraft and missiles had struck Houthi-held areas 94 times in 24 hours. He put the total since the escalation began at 1,350.

Al-Malki said separately that the coalition had intercepted and destroyed three Houthi ballistic missiles.

Mocha lies on the Red Sea coast of Taiz province. Houthi forces had held the city since September 2026, Arab News reported.

Bab al-Mandab separates Yemen from the Horn of Africa. Shipping bound for the Suez Canal passes through the strait.

Houthi attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden began in late 2023. Much of the traffic that used the route has since sailed around southern Africa.

The offensive follows a Houthi advance in the same province. Houthi forces cut the main road between Taiz and Aden on Sunday after taking the al-Safiya area south of the city, security and military sources said.

The road was the last open link between Taiz and Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government. Taiz has been encircled on its other sides since 2015.

Fighting in the 24 hours before that advance killed more than 70 people, according to figures the two sides gave separately. Government sources put their own losses at 34 soldiers. Houthi sources reported 39 dead.

Neither tally has been independently confirmed.

The movement has also fired at Saudi territory during the escalation. A fire broke out near an Aramco facility in Riyadh after the Houthis claimed missile and drone attacks.

Reuters and Axios reported last week that Saudi Arabia was preparing an operation to retake Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Yemen’s armed forces said last week that their air defences had downed Houthi drones over Aden.

Al-Alimi announced the start of military operations on Sunday. He said the government had moved from a phase of preparation and mobilisation to open military action.

He said then that the campaign was not a war against the residents of Sanaa, Hodeidah and Saada.

The Presidential Leadership Council took over the powers of former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in April 2022. The eight-member body sits in Aden.

The United Nations says more than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance. Its March 2026 response plan put 18.3 million in acute food insecurity and sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.

The Houthi movement has held Sanaa since September 2014.