Al Jazeera correspondent: Houthis have taken over strategic city of al-Makha (Mocha)
By Yousef Mawry
The Houthis have achieved a stunning victory, a surprise victory, against the internationally recognised Yemeni government forces west of Taiz.
They’ve been battling it out over the past nine days, and we knew that the Houthis were trying to push west of Taiz because their main goal, their main prize, was the takeover of the city of Mocha and also the Red Sea coastline.
It gives the Houthis full advantage to prevent ships from crossing Bab al-Mandeb, and also, more importantly, it gives them the ability to cut off three main supply lines to the internationally recognised Yemeni government, three main supply roads that supply Yemeni government forces in the south of the country.
Those have been officially taken by the Houthis.
It is only just a matter of time before the Houthis officially declare their full takeover of the city of Mocha.
But I talked to sources on the ground who said, quite frankly, that the city has been taken over, that government forces have fully withdrawn all of their brigades, all of their military divisions from the city of Mocha, and at the current moment that we are in right now, it does seem like a decisive victory for the Houthis in western Taiz.
