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Sudden Shift on the Hodeidah Front: Government Withdrawal and Houthi Advances
Yemen’s western coast has witnessed rapidly unfolding developments in recent hours, as government forces withdrew from positions in southern Hodeidah province and redeployed toward Mokha and Dhubab, southwest of Taiz, amid advances by the Houthi group in several strategic areas.
Yemeni military sources said government forces withdrew at dawn on Thursday from their positions in the Hayis district and parts of the Khokha district, both in southern Hodeidah, following an escalation in Houthi military activity in the area.
The sources told *Erem News* that the withdrawal decision came after the Houthis seized control of Khalid bin al-Walid Camp, located west of Taiz province and considered one of the country’s most prominent military bases. The camp was captured following intermittent clashes accompanied by a Houthi military buildup along the routes connecting the districts of southern Hodeidah to the city of Mokha through the western axes of the Maqbana district.
According to the sources, these developments placed government forces in Hayis and Khokha at risk of being isolated and besieged from multiple directions, particularly amid the possibility of supply and communication routes between the two areas and Mokha being cut off.
As a result, government forces carried out what the sources described as a tactical withdrawal, aimed at avoiding being caught in a battlefield siege and securing the units deployed in southern Hodeidah, in preparation for reorganizing their positions under a new deployment plan along the western coast.
Meanwhile, a military source said the Houthis had launched two ballistic missiles toward the strategic island of Zuqar in the Red Sea, which is under the control of National Resistance Forces.
The Yemeni Air Force responded with airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in the districts of al-Tuhayta and al-Salif, south and west of Hodeidah, in addition to strikes targeting several positions on Kamaran Island, which is under the group’s influence.
