The forces of the internationally recognised government, backed by heavy Saudi air strikes, reached the outskirts of Mocha late on Monday and Houthi fighters were retreating into the highlands, four government sources said. The Defence Ministry said the city had fallen.
The government forces had already taken key positions including an airstrip in the Dhubab district at the mouth of the strait, a vital Red Sea oil route whose seizure by the Houthis last month sent shock waves through energy markets.
Reuters could not independently verify the extent of the government gains. The Houthis, who have controlled many of Yemen's more populous areas including the capital Sanaa since 2014, said the Saudi-backed government's claims were baseless.
Meanwhile, the Houthis themselves made important advances near the city of Taiz, gaining sections of a mountain road to leave government forces there besieged, according to five military sources with the Yemeni government. One government source denied the road had been cut.
The group also threatened to attack air traffic in Saudi airspace.
The escalating conflict has prompted Riyadh's allies to act. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed at an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday to rapidly deploy military forces and capabilities in Saudi Arabia under their Mecca defence pact, according to a joint statement.
The war in Yemen resumed this northern summer after a ceasefire that had held since 2022 collapsed. The conflict has raged on and off since Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign against the Houthis in 2015, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in what was already the poorest Arab state.
Fighting has raged along several front lines in Yemen for weeks since a dormant civil war erupted in a spillover from the US-Iran conflict, with the Houthis seeking to control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and firing missiles and drones at Saudi cities and infrastructure.
Yemen's internationally recognised president, Rashad al-Alimi, swore on Sunday to fight "until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia".
Saudi Arabia on Monday said it had attacked hundreds of targets to provide air cover for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Yemeni ground forces. The Yemeni government said it had launched attacks on several fronts including in Sanaa province.
The Houthi-run health ministry said two people had been killed and seven wounded in strikes on the province's Sanhan and Sa'wan districts.
While the war has raged on several fronts, the heaviest fighting has been in the southwest, both in the coastal area near the strait and in the hills around Taiz.
Last week, Houthi attacks damaged a culvert on the Taiz-Aden road, making it impassable.
On Sunday night, the group's fighters made new advances into the town of al-Turbah, atop a promontory on the road, five government military sources said, though another government source denied this.
A Houthi-run news agency on Monday cited a military source as saying the group had driven government forces from the al-Mawasit district of Taiz province, reaching the home of Alimi, head of Yemen's interim presidential council.
The advances left Taiz, Yemen's third city with a population of over half a million and a garrison of thousands of government fighters, surrounded by Houthi forces, the government military sources said.
Taiz, nestled among Yemen's southern highlands, has been on the frontlines since early in the civil war, often under Houthi shell and sniper fire.
with Reuters
