--- title: "Yemen’s Government Claims Mocha and Dhubab as the Houthis Close In on Taiz" description: "A Saudi-backed push with 100 jets reports gains near Bab el-Mandeb as the Houthis cut Taiz’s road to Aden and claim strikes on Aramco" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-05T19:44:01Z modified: 2026-10-06T02:18:47Z url: https://rews.cc/a/yemen-s-government-declares-it-will-retake-everything-starti-86d1ab language: en tags: ["yemen", "houthi", "sanaa", "war", "iran", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Yemen’s Government Claims Mocha and Dhubab as the Houthis Close In on Taiz *A Saudi-backed push with 100 jets reports gains near Bab el-Mandeb as the Houthis cut Taiz’s road to Aden and claim strikes on Aramco* By Nate Ledger · October 5, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/yemen-s-government-declares-it-will-retake-everything-starti-86d1ab ## In brief - Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi announced on Sunday an offensive to retake all Houthi-held territory - Saudi coalition says 100 fighter jets are backing the push; the US provides intelligence, Reuters reported - Government forces claim Dhubab, Mocha and other areas near Bab el-Mandeb; the Houthis deny losing Dhubab - Houthis cut the Taiz–Aden road and claim Turbah; more than 70 were killed in a day around Taiz, per AFP - Houthis claim missile and drone strikes on Aramco sites and Saudi airports; Saudi Arabia has not confirmed them On Sunday Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, went on television and announced the war would now be won. The council is the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government. “Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” he said, according to Reuters. The offensive would go on “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.” He meant the Iran-backed Houthis, formally Ansar Allah, who have held Sanaa and most of the populous northwest since 2014. A military spokesman then invited the Houthis to lay down their weapons. The word “remaining” is carrying a lot of weight there. A month ago the government held quite a bit more of the republic than it does now. In a lightning offensive in September, the Houthis took the Bab el-Mandeb strait and about 150 km (90 miles) of Red Sea coast in a matter of weeks, and government forces collapsed in front of them. So the plan is to retake everything, starting from a losing position, using in part the [same forces that lost the coast](https://rews.cc/a/yemeni-government-forces-hold-in-taiz-as-houthis-press-on-af-2d8909). Alimi said the decision came only after every chance of de-escalation had been exhausted. He thanked Saudi Arabia and asked regional allies and international partners to back his forces. Here is why the strait matters so much. Bab el-Mandeb is the southern exit of the Red Sea and the shipping lane between the Mediterranean and Asia. This year it is worth more than usual, because the other route is shut. The US-Israeli war on Iran began in February, and Tehran answered partly by choking oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. That made Bab el-Mandeb the alternative route. Saudi oil exports were already under pressure from the Hormuz blockade. Then in September the group that has been firing missiles at Saudi oil infrastructure took control of the alternative. The Houthis grabbed the asset whose price had just gone up, and that pretty much explains why the response involves jets. The setup is roughly what regional and Western officials described to Reuters last week: Saudi Arabia fights in the air and Yemeni forces fight on the ground. Six people familiar with the preparations told Reuters that the US is already providing intelligence, and that some regional and European countries are giving the kingdom mainly defensive military aid. On Monday the coalition spokesman, Maj Gen Turki al-Malki, said 100 fighter jets were supporting government forces. He said the coalition had secured “air protection” of the strait and destroyed hundreds of Houthi targets. \[The National put the figure at 324 high-value targets\](\). Asked whether the US had coordinated with the Saudis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio would say only that the two countries have a defence agreement. The Yemeni government had been pushed off its territory and the Saudis attacked, he said, and “they have a right to defend themselves”. ## Two maps By Monday the government had a list of gains. In a statement carried by the Saba news agency, the military said the Homeland Shield Forces and Giants Brigades had carried out “a large-scale military operation with air cover” and retaken Dhubab district and key positions near the strait. Officials who spoke anonymously also claimed the towns of Bab and Hadeid, and witnesses reported seeing government tanks entering them. Later the government said it had \[retaken the port city of Mocha\](\) and had launched a “strategic offensive” on Sanaa. Al Jazeera reported that the Houthis denied losing Dhubab. Meanwhile the Houthis were busy gaining ground of their own, inland. Four security sources said that hours before Alimi’s speech, the Houthis cut the main road between Taiz and Aden, the government’s interim capital. “We were informed that the Houthis had taken control of the al-Safiya area, where they cut the main road and took control of the police station,” a police source said. Three military sources confirmed it, adding that traffic had stopped, the Houthis now surround the city and fighting was continuing. The rebels also said they had taken the town of \[Turbah\](\) on their way toward Taiz. Taiz is Yemen’s third-largest city. Hundreds of thousands of civilians live there, thousands of government troops are stationed there, and Alimi comes from the region. Government forces still hold the city, but Houthi fighters have besieged it from the north, east and west for years. Mohammed Al-Qadhi, a Yemeni journalist from Taiz who now works as a political analyst, explained to Reuters how the two fronts connect. Taking the rugged mountains of the western Taiz countryside would let the Houthis hold the flat coastal strip around Bab el-Mandeb from above. “This will help them protect their back in case of any operation against the coastline, and make recapturing those areas much more difficult,” he said. So the two offensives are, in a sense, aimed at each other’s weak spots. The government is pushing along the flat coast, and the Houthis are taking the high ground behind it. Both sides can report real progress on the same day without either being wrong yet. The cost is already high. Sources from both sides told AFP that more than 70 people were killed in and around Taiz province in a single day. Government sources reported 34 of their troops killed, 20 of them on the edge of the province in neighbouring Lahj. Houthi military sources said 39 of their fighters died across Taiz and the border areas with Lahj. The Houthi channel Al-Masirah reported Saudi strikes in al-Jawf and Saada on Sunday that wounded at least two people. The World Food Programme said last week that three in four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry because of the surge in fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands and disrupted supplies to millions. A siege of Taiz would make that worse. ## The Saudi side of the ledger The fighting has also reached Saudi soil. On Sunday the Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had fired ballistic missiles and drones at Aramco sites in Riyadh and in the Khurais area, causing large fires. He called it retaliation for what the Houthis said were 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes in the previous 12 hours. Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the attacks. On Monday, Reuters reported, the Houthis claimed further operations against \[King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an Aramco refinery in Rabigh, Abha airport and the Khamis Mushait military base\](\). Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to those claims either. None of this is new for the Saudis, who entered the war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition and did not manage to defeat the Houthis. The 2022 truce largely held until this year, when the Iran war spilled over into Houthi attacks on Saudi shipping and oil. Riyadh now has more help lined up. Al Jazeera reported that the push near the strait came ahead of a meeting in Riyadh of Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish officials, after [Pakistan and Turkey agreed to send forces](https://rews.cc/a/pakistan-and-turkey-agree-to-send-forces-to-saudi-arabia-und-ac6d1f) under a mutual defence pact. Even so, \[Al Jazeera’s analysis\](\) noted that defeating the Houthis in Sanaa will be hard. So the government announced it would retake the entire country on the same weekend it lost the road to Aden. Both things can be true for a while. Holding Taiz will decide which one is still true next month. ## Sources - [Yemeni government launches offensive to seize all areas from Iran-backed Houthis](https://kathmandupost.com/world/2026/10/05/yemeni-government-launches-offensive-to-seize-all-areas-from-iran-backed-houthis) — kathmandupost.com - [Yemen war: What's the latest, as government forces claim advances?](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/5/yemen-war-escalates-whats-the-latest-on-the-battlefield) — aljazeera.com - [Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launches military drive to retake all Houthi-held territory](https://theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/05/saudi-backed-yemen-government-military-drive-retake-houthi-territory) — theguardian.com - [Yemen leader announces major military operations against Iran-backed Houthis](https://nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/yemen-leader-major-military-operations-iran-backed-houthis-rcna601377) — nbcnews.com - [Yemeni forces reclaim Dhubab and key positions near Bab al-Mandeb from Houthis](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/5/yemen-forces-claim-to-seize-dhubab-sites-near-bab-al-mandeb-from-houthis) — aljazeera.com - [Yemeni government forces push toward Sanaa in anti-Houthi offensive](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/5/yemeni-govt-forces-aim-for-sanaa-but-houthi-defeat-will-be-a-challenge) — aljazeera.com - [Saudi-backed forces recapture key areas around strait from Houthis in Yemen](https://theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/05/saudi-forces-recapture-key-areas-strait-houthis-yemen) — theguardian.com