By Murad al-Arifi
TAIZ, Yemen (AA) – Yemeni pro-government forces on Wednesday decisively captured the Red Sea port city of Mocha, according to a military source and eyewitnesses.
The development follows one month of fighting during which Houthi militiamen and allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh had attempted to maintain their hold on the strategic city.
Government troops are now deployed across Mocha, local eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency, adding that the streets of the city were strewn with slain Houthi fighters.
“After failing to receive reinforcements, the Houthis withdrew from the city to the Yakhtal area [some 10 kilometers north of Mocha],” Bilal al-Saqqaf, a commander of the pro-government “popular resistance forces”, told Anadolu Agency.
“Pro-government forces have entirely retaken the city and are now in the process of securing its streets and neighborhoods,” he said.
Early last month, Yemeni government forces — with the help of a Saudi-led military coalition — began a campaign to recapture Houthi and pro-Saleh positions in the southern province of Aden and the city of Taiz.
Yemen has been wracked by chaos since 2014, when the Shia Houthi militia group and pro-Saleh forces overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched an extensive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.
