Yemen battle to move north after port secured
We have won fight for Mokha, says army spokesman
ADEN // Yemeni government forces took control of the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha yesterday after weeks of fighting with Shiite rebels and their allies.
The loyalist troops are now preparing to head northwards to Hodeida, an army spokesman said.
“We are done with the Battle of Mokha,” said armed forces spokesman Mohammed Al Naqib, adding that the rebels had been forced to flee the port town. “We now preparing for the second phase of the battle for the coast, which is to advance towards Hodeida.”
Another loyalist military source confirmed that government forces were in “full control” after encountering
‘ We are now preparing for the second phase of the battle for the coast, which is to advance towards Hodeida Mohammed Al Naqib Armed forces spokesman
fierce resistance. Twenty-four rebels and eight loyalist troops were killed in fighting on Wednesday. Before the government launched its offensive on January 7, the rebels controlled almost all of Yemen’s 450 kilometre Red Sea coastline.
With the support of the Saudi Arabian- led coalition, which includes the UAE, the loyalists have made their biggest advances in months in fighting that has resulted in the deaths of more than 400 combatants.
This month, government forces took back Mokha’s docks but there was heavy fighting in other parts of the town before the rebels withdrew north towards Hodeida, the main Red Sea port city that they still control.
Tens of thousands of civilians were trapped by the fighting. Many had sought refuge in Mokha after fleeing towns to the south as government forces pushed up the coast.
The coalition had enforced an air- and- sea blockade of rebel-held territory that prevented the militants from making any use of Mokha’s small docks.
All deliveries of basic goods are under United Nations supervision and those transported by sea pass through Hodeida, making the port city vital to the rebels. Mokha was once Yemen’s main port serving as the export hub for coffee grown in the highlands but it was overtaken in the 19th century by Hodeida, which remains in the hands of the rebels, and the southern port of Aden, which is the government headquarters. Sanaa, the capital, is held by the rebels.