Houthis say they have seized the strategic port city of Mokha

Rastinews — The Iran-linked Houthis announced they had taken control of Mokha, a strategic port city in the southwestern Yemeni province of Taiz. A military official told Xinhua that Houthi forces entered the city after hours of heavy fighting.

The same official said government troops had been forced to withdraw towards Dhubab, the coastal area between Mokha and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Fighting also continued in other parts of Yemen's western coast, and thousands of families have fled their homes because of the violence.

According to reports citing four military sources from the Yemeni government, the Houthis also launched attacks on the strategic Hanish Islands after taking the city.

Defence analyst Wolfgang Pusztai told Al Jazeera that the fall of Mokha would make it harder for government forces to bring in weapons through the port. Mokha was the last port held by the internationally recognised government, he said, and its loss could unravel government forces in southern Yemen.

Mokha lies about 70 kilometres north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is critical to international shipping. Its capture widens Houthi influence over the strait and sharpens the threat to global energy supplies. Brent crude has since traded above 100 dollars a barrel.

Four emergency alerts were issued in the past 24 hours in the southwestern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, reportedly because of Houthi attacks. The state-run Saba news agency said Saudi warplanes carried out about 40 air strikes over the same hours in the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib.

The Houthis have not yet responded to Rastî's questions about these developments, nor has the government side.

Yemen's civil war began in 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led military intervention followed the next year.