Houthi Strikes on Mokha Kill 18 in Two Waves in One Day
Two Houthi attacks on Mokha, less than 24 hours apart, killed 18 people on Yemen's Red Sea coast, with the military reporting the toll from the second strike only on Monday.
The Yemeni Houthi movement struck the Red Sea port city of Mokha, on Yemen’s western coast, twice within less than 24 hours on Sunday, August 9. The two waves of missile and drone strikes together left 18 people dead and 62 wounded. Mokha sits on the shipping route that links the Suez Canal to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, the corridor that carries goods from Asia to European markets, including Serbia’s own. That makes the cost of escalation on this stretch of the Red Sea coast a problem that does not stop at Yemen’s border.
The first wave hit the city and its commercial port during the day, killing at least 11 people, eight members of the armed forces and three civilians, and wounding 32. The second strike followed that same evening. The Yemeni Armed Forces did not report the toll from the later attack until Monday, August 10, saying seven people were killed, four military personnel and three civilians, and 30 were wounded, most of them civilians. The military said most of the wounded had been treated and sent home.
Targets included sites with no military purpose. Residential neighborhoods, power stations and port facilities were hit, alongside military positions inside the city itself, and Yemeni authorities reported damage to buildings, businesses, port infrastructure, cargo and food stocks. Air defenses shot down 11 drones, two ballistic missiles fell into the sea without causing damage, and government forces intercepted and destroyed an explosive laden drone boat approaching the commercial port.
Houthis Cite Saudi Reinforcements as Motive
Al Masirah television, which is close to the movement, broadcast footage of the missile and drone launches, and Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree described the operation as targeting objectives the authorities in Sanaa consider legitimate.
“The operation targeted concentrations of Saudi forces and weapons depots in the area.”
The Houthis say the strikes were a response to what they describe as a buildup of Saudi military presence, including weapons and equipment delivered to allied forces along the western coast and in Taiz province. Hizam al-Asad, a member of the movement’s political council, said after the attack that the scale of the destruction spoke for itself.
“The explosions, fires and columns of smoke from the port are the result of the large quantities of weapons and military equipment stored there.”
Neither claim has been independently verified. Access to the area hit by the strikes is restricted, so casualty figures rely on Yemeni military sources, while the Houthis offer their own account of what the actual target was.
Why Does Mokha Matter?
Mokha is a small port with an outsized strategic weight, sitting on the Yemeni side of the approach to the Bab el Mandeb strait, through which traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden passes. Whoever holds that coastline can extend the reach of its weapons onto the shipping lane. The Houthis have previously targeted commercial and military vessels in and around the Red Sea, saying the attacks were a show of support for Palestinians, a campaign that drew an international military presence to the area in response.
Largest Wave Since the 2022 Truce
This is one of the largest surges of Houthi attacks on positions held by the Riyadh backed government since the truce brokered by the United Nations in 2022. The escalation was not confined to Mokha: the Al Hoha district south of the coastal city of Hodeidah was also hit, where the government’s governor, Al Hasan Taher, survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after a Houthi ballistic missile struck his residence. Three days earlier, on August 7, missiles and drones were fired at camps for displaced people and residential areas in Marib.
The National Resistance Forces, led by Presidential Leadership Council member Tarek Saleh and aligned with the internationally recognized government, called on Mokha’s residents to stay in their homes, accusing the Houthis of indiscriminate shelling. After years of war and a truce that reduced, but did not stop, the fighting, two strikes on the same city in a single day show how far that arrangement has slipped into formality. Confirmation of where things actually stand will come with the next casualty count, not with any scheduled date.
