• Yemen's Houthi rebels are advancing towards the port city of Mokha on the country's western coast as fighting intensifies in strategically important areas on the Red Sea.
• Government forces and their allies have withdrawn from the area around Hais, north of Mokha, according to military sources, amid the conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemen's Saudi-backed government.
• If the Houthis were to take control of Mokha, they could potentially block shipping traffic in the Red Sea more systematically, impacting global oil and gas trade through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Yemen's Houthi rebels are further advancing towards the port city of Mokha on the country's western coast, eyewitnesses and military sources said on Thursday as fighting between government troops and the militia intensifies in strategically important areas on the Red Sea.

Government forces and their allies have withdrawn from the area around Hais, north of Mokha, according to military sources.

The Iran-backed Houthis have been fighting Yemen's Saudi-backed government for more than a decade. A 2022 truce had left the conflict largely frozen, with no major fighting but also little prospect of an end to the war.

The conflict has flared up again amid the wider war involving Iran.

Tareq Saleh, who leads the National Resistance Forces, called on all forces loyal to the government to "regroup." Instructions have been issued to set up, in coordination with the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government, an "alternative command centre in a secure location for the reorganization of the troops."

Mokha is located just north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the most important shipping routes for the global oil and gas trade besides the Strait of Hormuz.

If the Houthis were to take control of Mokha, they could attack and block shipping traffic in the Red Sea even more systematically than they have done so far.

Since the start of the Iran war, the strait has been used as an alternative trade route to compensate for disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Eyewitnesses told dpa that many residents were leaving Mokha fearing further escalation. The Houthis already control key transport hubs in the area.