Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha (also spelled Mocha) from Saudi-backed pro-government forces, military sources and witnesses say — a coastal flash that puts the group roughly 75 km (46 miles) from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway linking Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and Suez, BBC News reported.

Four Yemeni government military sources told Reuters the historic port had fallen. Al Jazeera, citing government sources and its Yemen correspondent, likewise reported the takeover Thursday as internationally recognised government forces withdrew. Reuters said the Houthis have also pushed toward Dhubab on the strait after fighting around Red Sea islands including Hanish; Al Jazeera’s Yasser Hassan, reporting from Taiz, said fighters were moving south toward Dhubab.

Mokha residents told the BBC that Houthi fighters entered after fierce Wednesday-night clashes. Shops and government offices were closed Thursday; many families fled toward Aden, seat of the Presidential Leadership Council. BBC reported hundreds killed and thousands displaced in about a week of southwest fighting. One resident described “injured people lying in the streets”; another said Ansar Allah fighters were patrolling and “everyone is afraid.”

There was no immediate Houthi confirmation of Mokha’s capture by name, the BBC noted. The group’s Supreme Political Council said western-coast clashes had “ceased … after the expulsion of Saudi enemy mobilisations,” per Houthi-run Al Masirah TV. Houthi spokesmen separately claimed Red Sea navigation remains “safe” for international shipping while reiterating an embargo on Saudi vessels.

National Resistance Forces leader Tarek Salah (also spelled Tariq Saleh) said he moved his west-coast command to a “safe location” after what he called an Iran-planned Houthi offensive; Al Jazeera framed the pullback as a “tactical withdrawal.” Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi urged Arab and other states to help protect Yemen’s coasts, warning Bab al-Mandab “cannot become another Strait of Hormuz.”

A Yemeni military source told AFP — via the BBC — that Houthi fighters had also seized Zuqar Island in the Red Sea, about 80 km northwest of Mokha, after rockets and a boat-borne ground assault. Treat that island claim as attributed, not independently verified here.

Context, not the lede: a Saudi-led coalition has struck Houthi-held areas while the Houthis have fired missiles and drones at southern Saudi cities and oil sites, feeding an oil-price surge as Hormuz and Red Sea routes stay disrupted. Insanity Developing’s Sept. 8 Saudi-attack piece and today’s Iran-midterms coverage do not substitute for this Mokha seizure.

Whoever holds Mokha sits a short hop from a chokepoint that moves oil and commodities between Asia, Europe, and the Gulf — concentrated military leverage over a trade artery the public cannot inspect in real time.

Sources