Houthis Unleash Deadly Barrage on Yemen's Mocha Port, Killing Nearly a Dozen

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a large-scale missile and drone assault on the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens more in one of the most significant escalations of the conflict in months. A medical source in Mocha said three civilians and eight military personnel were killed, with 32 others wounded, including six civilians, after the Houthis fired a barrage of ballistic missiles and more than 18 drones at the government-held port. Residents described hearing a rapid succession of explosions as thick black smoke rose over the coastal city, with video circulating online showing the massive plume billowing above buildings and roads still bustling with civilian activity moments before the strikes.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed the operation targeted Saudi-backed troop concentrations and weapons depots inside Mocha, describing the strikes as causing widespread destruction of military equipment and casualties among government and Saudi personnel, though the group offered no evidence to support those claims. Yemeni government officials pushed back sharply, with one telling reporters the missiles instead struck civilian areas inside the port facility. The attack on Mocha, a city near the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait controlled by Yemen's internationally recognized government, came just hours after the Houthis claimed a separate drone strike on a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, southwestern Saudi Arabia, though Saudi officials said the resulting fire was quickly contained by industrial security teams with no injuries reported.

The dual strikes mark a dangerous new phase in the Houthis' ongoing campaign against Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Saudi-backed government, threatening to reignite full-scale civil war more than four years after a 2022 truce halted major fighting in the country. The Houthis framed the assault as retaliation for what they called Saudi drone incursions into Houthi-held territory in northern Yemen, and Saree vowed the group would continue monitoring Saudi military movements while maintaining what he described as a "blockade-for-blockade" strategy. The escalation comes as Iran simultaneously presses new demands over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how the Yemen conflict remains tightly bound to the broader regional standoff between Tehran and Washington's allies.