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On Yemen's Taiz Front Line as Houthis Mass for Offensive

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Pro-government forces are battling advancing Houthi fighters in the mountains near Taiz, where residents live under mortar fire and both sides brace for a major push.

Pro-government soldiers backed by Saudi Arabia are fighting to hold back Houthi forces in the mountains south-west of Taiz, Yemen's third largest city, as both sides prepare for what fighters describe as an imminent major offensive. The clashes have sharpened this month after the Houthis pushed down the Red Sea coast and seized a critical stretch of shipping territory, driving the country's long war into a new and dangerous phase.

The fighting turned fiercer after the Houthis captured the strategic port of Mokha, 85km west of Taiz, on 10 September. The seizure shattered a ceasefire that had broadly held for four years. With Mokha in their hands, the group now commands a band of territory overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow corridor that links European and Asian shipping routes. Fears of disruption to supplies from the region have already helped push up oil prices.

Reporters who travelled with government troops from Taiz passed through a series of checkpoints to reach the point where their control ends and open ground begins. In the hills, the danger arrives from the air first. A soldier accompanying the group warned that the buzzing of a drone overhead was usually the signal for an attack. The party took cover in bushes, then moved out by vehicle. Around ten minutes later, a run of heavy blasts struck nearby, though the exact impact points were not clear.

The slopes are dotted with houses, but many now stand empty after families fled the shelling. The area is unusually silent, without the constant traffic of the city below. The only sounds are livestock and the crack of fire moving in both directions.

A goat herder who would not leave

About a kilometre from the front line, a man named Ali sat outside his home surrounded by goats. Two mortar rounds had already struck his land, he said. He had sent his children to a camp for displaced people because they could no longer bear the constant shelling and gunfire, but he had chosen to remain with his wife and sisters to guard the animals.

"I am terrified," he said, adding that leaving was not an option. Without the livestock, he said, the family faced starvation regardless. He asked to be identified by his first name alone, worried about what might happen to him if the Houthis overran the area in the coming days.

His fear reflects a wider expectation of escalation. Sources on the Houthi side say the group is bringing troops together in readiness for a large assault. Asked about those preparations, government commanders said they were aware of the buildup and were readying their own forces.

Eighteen bodies no one can reach

At the checkpoint nearest the front, fighters had just come back from positions high on the mountain, only a few hundred metres from advancing Houthi units. One described a stretch of ground his unit could shoot across but not physically reach, where the bodies of 18 government soldiers had been left. "We shoot over them, but we can't pull them out," he said.

Taiz is more than a military prize. Home to close to a million people, it is regarded as Yemen's cultural capital and sits at a vital junction between the Houthi-held north and the government-controlled south. The city is boxed in by front lines on several sides. Government forces hold its centre, while Houthi positions sit to the north and east. The most intense recent combat has been on the western approaches, where the two sides are contesting high ground.

The convergence of front lines around the city, combined with the Houthi advance along the coast, has left Taiz exposed on multiple fronts at once. For residents like Ali, the choice is stark: abandon homes and livelihoods, or stay within range of the guns and wait to see which side controls the ground when the fighting stops.

Yemen civil war, Taiz front line, Houthi offensive, Mokha port, Bab al-Mandab Strait, Yemen conflict, Red Sea shipping, pro-government forces

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