Yemeni Government Forces Say They Have Taken Mount Qarfan in Taiz

Forces of Yemen's internationally recognised government say they have taken Mount Qarfan in Taiz province, a position Al Jazeera reported disrupts Houthi defences and affects their advance along the Red Sea coast. The claim has not been independently verified, and the two sides have issued competing accounts of control over the highland chain southwest of Taiz through September.

The Israeli business daily Globes, surveying international coverage, framed the same fighting as the Houthis seeking to take the mountain ridge above a coastline they already hold. Reporting from the region, including The National on the contested Kahboub range, describes a campaign that began in early September when the Houthis moved against government positions in Taiz, prompting counter-offensives in Al Jawf and Al Bayda.

The commercial stake is the coastline rather than the mountains. The Houthi movement took the Red Sea port of Mocha this month and now controls nearly the whole western seaboard, giving it positions along one of the approaches to the Bab al-Mandab strait through which a large share of Europe-Asia container traffic passes. Whoever holds the highlands above the coastal road controls resupply to those positions.

Shipping through the corridor has already been rerouted repeatedly since 2023. Each change of control in Taiz alters how confident carriers and their insurers are that the situation will hold.