Houthis Battle for Taiz After Seizing Mokha Port — SkimNews
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- Houthis seized the Red Sea port of Mokha on September 10, ending a four-year ceasefire and consolidating control over territory overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait — the shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia.
- Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city and cultural capital of nearly one million people, sits hemmed in by front lines on multiple sides, with the fiercest fighting on its western approaches.
- Government forces told the BBC they are bracing for a major Houthi offensive; 18 of their soldiers' bodies lie in no-man's-land that troops can fire across but cannot reach to recover.
- The UN refugee agency said on September 22 that more than 130,000 people have been displaced across Yemen this month alone, warning another 100,000 could flee within three months — on top of 5.2 million already displaced.
- Twelve-year-old Ghana Nabeel was struck in the head by Houthi mortar shrapnel while herding goats near Taiz; doctors at al-Thawra hospital said the brain damage means she "will never be the same."
- Iran remains the Houthis' main outside weapons supplier according to Saudi Arabia, Western governments and UN experts, though Iran denies arming the group and says its support is political only.
Why it matters: The four-year stalemate in Yemen's civil war has shattered — the Houthis' push from Mokha toward Taiz has already displaced 130,000 people this month alone, and another 100,000 could flee within three months, per the UN. Whoever holds Taiz's western approaches controls the route back to Mokha and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for Europe-Asia oil shipments.
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