The New Indian Express ·
Politics
Yemen government forces say hit Houthis in Red Sea city
DUBAI: Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces said Saturday that they had struck Iran-allied Houthi fighters in the Red Sea city of Mocha, as the number of civilians forced to flee the renewed fighting soared.
US news site Axios reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had twice called US President Donald Trump to request American strikes on the Houthis last week but the request was rejected.
The ongoing clashes follow a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing the remainder of Yemen's Red Sea coast and several strategic islands, and cementing their hold on the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the sea's southern entrance.
The waterway has become an important artery for Saudi Arabian oil exports after Iran largely cut off shipments through the Gulf with its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Middle East war. The Houthis have recently declared their own maritime blockade of Riyadh's Red Sea ports.
The government news agency Saba reported on Saturday that Yemeni "forces destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed members of the Houthi terrorist militia" near the port of Mocha, and quoted a spokesman for the forces as saying they had also struck Houthi targets just outside the city.
The Houthis, meanwhile, said on Saturday evening that over the past 48 hours, "Saudi enemy aircraft conducted 129 airstrikes" on areas under their control.
Yemen's civil war, which began in 2014 with the Houthi capture of the capital Sanaa, had been dormant since a ceasefire in 2022 but roared back to life in July, making it the latest country to be sucked into the wider Middle East war.
Saudi Arabia had entered the Yemeni war on the side of the internationally recognised government in 2015 and continues to support the Aden-based administration.
On Saturday, Saudi authorities issued two brief alerts warning of the risk of attacks in two southern regions near Yemen.
The civil war had already uprooted millions, and the latest fighting has led even more to flee their homes.
The fall of Mocha to the Houthis on Thursday drove many residents to Aden, where the internationally recognised government is based.
One of the displaced, Abdulali al-Rajihi, said the Houthis "told us: 'Leave, scatter, you have half an hour'."
"We fled wearing the clothes on our backs. And we took our children, as much as we could manage."
Saddam Ali escaped from Al-Waziyah with his 11 children and a few possessions crammed into a small pick-up truck. He said he hadn't found a single free house in the city, "not even a shelter".
The UN's migration agency said on Saturday that, since July, 76,000 people had fled the fighting, a figure that had quadrupled since last week.
It said it was providing support but warned that "needs are far outpacing what we can deliver".
"The situation is deteriorating by the day," it added.
The renewed fighting in Yemen has killed more than 500 people, according to sources on both sides.
Following the Axios report on the Saudi request for help, Trump on Saturday acknowledged speaking to the de facto Saudi leader, but said the Houthis had also "called us and they don't want to fight with us".
He did not elaborate on whether the US would take any action, but he told reporters that "everything's gonna work out fine and dandy" in the region.
In 2025, the United States conducted a seven-week bombing campaign against the Houthis in response to their repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.
That effort ended with a negotiated ceasefire, though the Houthis kept up their missile and drone attacks targeting Israel.
More recently, the group has resumed attacks on ships in the Red Sea after declaring their maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.
In the capital Sanaa, meanwhile, Houthi supporters were celebrating the freeing of 210 prisoners held in areas that fell to the group.
The group said they were prisoners of war who had spent up to eight years in jail.
"I have rediscovered the taste of life," freed prisoner Mohammed Bajash told AFP. "For five years, I suffered every day."
