Yemen’s government forces: “Ansar Allah (Houthis) driven out of the Bab el-Mandeb area”; Ansar Allah (Houthis): “Saudi airport, Aramco struck”

[Financial News] Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces said they had recaptured the port city of Mocha along the Red Sea coast near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Iran-backed Ansar Allah (Houthis) had been pushed back from most of the areas they recently seized, but claimed to have attacked several facilities, including the airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a Saudi Aramco refinery.
According to France’s AFP news agency on the 5th (local time), Yemen’s Defense Ministry announced, “We have captured Mocha, which Ansar Allah (Houthis) had occupied.” Four Yemeni government sources said, “Yemeni government forces, backed by large-scale Saudi airstrikes, reached the outskirts of Mocha late that day, while Ansar Allah (Houthis) fighters were retreating to higher ground.”
Saudi Arabia also said it had “struck hundreds of targets to provide air cover for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Yemeni ground forces.” Turki Al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, said, “The coalition’s navy struck military targets belonging to Ansar Allah (Houthis) in Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast.” He explained that “the coalition destroyed an armory and facilities where boats rigged with explosives and naval mines were stored,” and “thwarted attacks targeting shipping routes in the southern Red Sea.”
Ansar Allah (Houthis), for its part, rejected as baseless the Yemeni government forces’ claim that they had been driven out of the Bab el-Mandeb area. It also claimed to have struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an Aramco refinery and other targets in southern Saudi Arabia. It then threatened, “We will attack air traffic in Saudi airspace.”
Against this backdrop, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan agreed at an emergency meeting in Riyadh that day to rapidly deploy troops and military capabilities to Saudi Arabia under the “Mecca Mutual Defense Agreement,” and condemned in the strongest terms attempts by Ansar Allah (Houthis) to attack Mecca and Medina. The Mecca Defense Agreement, signed in August to strengthen collective deterrence, stipulates that an armed attack against any one of the three countries will be considered an attack against all of them.
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