81 killed as Yemen's Houthis push toward key strait, sources say

Yemen's Houthis are pushing toward the Bab el-Mandeb strait after an offensive that military and medical sources said killed 81 people. The fighting began Thursday with a ground assault supported by rocket and drone attacks near the Red Sea coast.

The Iran-backed rebels are seeking to cut off Mokha, a government-held port city that has come under fire for weeks, and advance toward areas bordering the narrow waterway at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Military sources said the Houthis captured elevated sites overlooking government positions near the coast, the town of Khokha and Taiz farther inland.

Those positions could allow the rebels to target ships, according to a military source and a Taiz official who spoke to AFP anonymously. A coastal military official said 24 of his men had died, while another official in the Taiz area reported 15 deaths. Medical sources in Houthi-controlled areas said at least 42 Houthi fighters were killed.

A Yemeni official in Aden said the Houthis wanted to control the hills overlooking Bab el-Mandeb and Mokha before attacking the coast. The government sent reinforcements to Taiz from Aden on Saudi orders, the official said.

Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea, and through the Suez Canal the Mediterranean, with the Indian Ocean. Although the Houthis do not control territory bordering the strait, they hold Hodeida, the key port north of Mokha. The waterway has become more important for Saudi oil exports after Iran effectively halted Gulf shipments by blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

A fragile truce collapsed in July after the Houthis welcomed an Iranian plane to Sanaa, followed by renewed attacks. The rebels later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began striking its ships and territory, drawing Yemen's long-running civil conflict further into the wider Middle East war.