Yemen’s army launches airstrikes along western coast, including areas around Mocha - Anadolu Ajansı

The Yemeni army announced Friday that its forces began airstrikes on areas of Yemen's western coast, including areas surrounding the city of Mocha.

The announcement came a day after the army declared an area around the Taiz-Mocha road a military zone.

In a statement on X, army spokesman Majid al-Nuzaili asked civilians to avoid using the Taiz-Mocha road as well as the Mocha-Dhubab road.

"Civilians must not use the prohibited roads until further notice," al-Nuzaili wrote.

State-run Aljoumhouriya TV later reported a series of airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in Mocha, Khalid camp and Jabal al-Nar.

Sources cited by the broadcaster said one of the strikes targeted a large gathering of Houthi fighters inside the compound of a water and sanitation project in Mocha.

Local sources also told the broadcaster that airstrikes hit the Souq al-Kharj area in Al-Hali, Mocha.

Aljoumhouriya TV separately reported heavy strikes targeting Houthi military equipment in the coastal district of Dhubab al-Mandab.

Yemen’s battlefield map has shifted in recent days as fighting between government forces and the Houthis intensified after clashes resumed in early July following years of relative calm.

The Houthis say they now control all of Al-Hudaydah province and have advanced in western Taiz, taking Mocha city and its Red Sea port and reaching areas near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important maritime routes.

Government forces, meanwhile, have made gains in the northern province of Al-Jawf near the Saudi border and moved closer to Al-Hazm, the provincial capital, while fighting continues on fronts in Marib, Al-Bayda and Al-Dhalea.

Yemen had been under a relative lull since April 2022 after nearly 12 years of war between government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed Houthis, who seized control of the capital, Sanaa, and large parts of the country in 2014.

Since late 2023, after the Gaza war began, the Houthis have become increasingly involved in regional hostilities, launching attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, while renewed fighting has raised fears of a return to full-scale conflict in Yemen.