The mountainous district is key to control of Mocha, the Red Sea port the Houthis seized last month.
Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government have launched an operation to capture a strategic mountainous district from the Houthis as part of a wider push to retake the Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The offensive on the district of al-Waziiya in Taiz governorate on Tuesday came as Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s government, intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile targeting the city of Khamis Mushait.
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The operation is part of the “Dawn of Yemen” offensive that was announced on Sunday by Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, to retake all remaining Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa, which the Iran-backed group has controlled since 2014.
The media centre of Yemen’s army said in a post on X that the Homeland Shield Forces, a pro-government military faction, have begun “a large-scale operation” to retake al-Waziiya.
“The armed forces have secured strategic hills overlooking the al-Mansoura area, amidst a mass retreat by the Houthi militia,” it said, citing a military source.
The Houthis, however, denied the claim, saying they had successfully repelled the Yemeni government advance in al-Waziiya.
The mountainous district is located west of Taiz, east of the Red Sea port of Mocha. The Houthis had seized Mocha and areas around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait – a strategic maritime corridor – in a lightning offensive last month.
“These are the mountains that the Houthis took control of prior to the takeover of the city of Mocha,” Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry said, reporting from Sanaa.
“If the Yemeni government is serious about taking over the city of Mocha, they cannot do so unless they take over the region in the district of al-Waziiya,” he added.
Saudi interception
The fighting came as the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.
Major-General Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson for the coalition, said the Houthi missile threats originated from Houthi-held Sanaa and the governorates of Saada and Amran.
“The coalition continues to neutralise the threat posed by ballistic and surface-to-surface missiles and to destroy their launch sources,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz airport in Jazan and Najran airport, near the Yemen border, were hit in attacks that wounded three people.
The attacks caused injuries of “varying severity” and material damage, and the injured have been taken to hospital, the authority said.
The Houthis said late on Monday that their forces targeted sites across southern Saudi Arabia, including airports and military sites.
The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, has confirmed its participation in the Yemeni government offensive to retake all Houthi-held territory, saying 100 of its fighter jets are providing air support.
Pakistan and Turkiye have also agreed to activate “deterrence measures” under their mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia and rapidly deploy forces to the Gulf kingdom to counter attacks by the Houthis.
