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Reuters

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants have ⁠reached the Red Sea islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha, two Yemeni government sources said, in a dramatic strategic shift that could threaten the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important shipping routes.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified in recent days, with the militant group shifting its focus to control over Yemen’s long coastline instead of just the north, putting them in a stronger position to disrupt maritime trade.
Despite concerns over possible new problems for global shipping from the Middle East turmoil, a Houthi spokesman said freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and the Strait remained safe and operations were limited to specific ‌targets.
But they would only stop when the “aggression” against Yemen ended, added Mohammed Abdulsalam, in a post on social media.

The Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre, set up to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators, said navigation in the Red Sea was safe for all shipping companies, except Saudi vessels, which remained subject to a previously announced ban.
The group had launched attacks on Hanish, pushing government forces and their allies south to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait across from the island of Perim, the Yemeni sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.
The escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia’s Yemeni allies in the internationally recognised government and the Houthis has created a second theatre of war in the Iran conflict that threatens global energy and commodity supplies.
Houthi militants earlier seized control of the historic port city of Mocha, four government military sources said.
Brent crude prices hovered above US$100 a barrel on Thursday as supply routes through both the Strait ⁠of Hormuz and the Red Sea remained heavily disrupted.
To avoid the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has been loading millions of barrels of oil a day from its Yanbu port, which lies further north on the Red Sea coast.
Houthi control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait ‌risks further disruptions to the flow of the kingdom’s oil supplies to Asia. The militant group has already declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.
A UN-brokered truce in Yemen in 2022 largely halted years of war but has not led to a lasting settlement, with the latest fighting threatening a return to full-scale conflict.

Bab el-Mandeb, or the Gate of Tears, named for its perilous navigation conditions, is ‌the southern outlet of the Red Sea, between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast, making it a major prize for the Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas and much ⁠of the north.
It is one of the world’s most important ⁠routes for crude oil and fuel from the Gulf bound for the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, or the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, as well as commodities bound for Asia, including Russian oil.
A military leader allied with Yemen’s government forces said on Thursday that he directed his group on the west coast to establish ‌an alternative command centre in a safe location, the Al-Jumhuriya television channel linked to him reported.
The instructions from Tarek Saleh, nephew of assassinated Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, were another sign that the Houthis were pushing his National Resistance Forces from the west.
A group of Houthi fighters armed with rifles and chewing qat, a green leaf narcotic that dominates life ‌in Yemen, celebrated ‌their advances at a security directorate building in the Hays district south of Hodeidah, chanting: “Death to America, death to Israel” in a video verified by Reuters.
Pakistan had delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks ‌on the kingdom, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said, in the hope of preventing the conflict from spiralling.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran on Tuesday and its response was that “Iran does not control the Houthis”.
However, two Iranian sources said Tehran told ⁠the Houthis last week to carry out attacks on Saudi Arabia, promising additional funding and weapons, while several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders had travelled to Yemen to help coordinate the attacks.

The Houthis disrupted Red Sea shipping in 2023, saying they were acting in support of Palestinians ⁠during Israel’s war in Gaza.
Those attacks on Red Sea shipping, as well as on Saudi Arabia, resumed this year in response to the United States’ war on the Houthis’ close ally Iran.
The Houthis said on Wednesday that Saudi strikes hit the Yemeni provinces of Al Jawf, Marib and Saada, bordering the kingdom, as well as Taiz in the south and Hodeidah city along the Red Sea coast, a Houthi stronghold used as a base for their broader campaign ‌of attacks on shipping in the waterway. Saudi Arabia did not confirm ‌the strikes.
Saudi Arabia said Houthi attacks on the kingdom in recent days have wounded 73 people, including women and children, after targeting civilian and economic sites in the south.
In 2014, the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa, driving the internationally recognised government south towards Aden.
Fearful of growing Iranian influence in Yemen and chaos on its borders, Saudi Arabia led a military intervention against the Houthis in 2015.
The resulting civil war triggered one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises and led to years of bitter fighting and devastating air strikes by Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners.
With Iranian support, the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, turned his faction of mountain fighters into a force of tens of thousands that demonstrated significant missile and drone capabilities, attacking oil installations and vital infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the conflict.


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Middle East

Yemen’s Houthis close in on strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait in new threat to shipping

This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media on Thursday shows Houthi fighters inside Yemen’s strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha. Photo: various sources / AFP

Smoke rises following a strike during fighting between Houthis and Saudi-backed forces at a location given as Al Jawf, Yemen, in a video image released on Wednesday. Photo: Al Masirah/Handout via Reuters

Boats are pictured on the shore of Bab el-Mandeb, Yemen, in April. Photo: Reuters

Children of internally displaced Yemeni people stand under a tree with their belongings in Mocha, on the Red Sea coast of Yemen on Monday. Photo: AFP

A fighter with Yemen’s Houthi rebels carries a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as they march during a mobilisation campaign in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday. Photo: AP

A vehicle burns after being attacked by Houthis during fighting with Saudi-backed forces at a location given as Al Jawf, Yemen, in this still video image released on Wednesday. Photo: Al Masirah/Handout via Reuters

Hundreds killed in deadliest Yemen fighting since 2022 truce collapsed

Forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government deploy in the Hays district, south of Hodeidah. Fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels has left hundreds dead. Photo: AFP

Heavy fighting in Yemen has forced many civilians to flee. Photo: AFP

20 sailors kidnapped by Somali pirates near Yemen on US-sanctioned ship

An armed Somali pirate along the coastline while the Greek cargo ship, MV Filitsa, is seen anchored just off the shores of Hobyo town in northeastern Somalia in 2010. Photo: AFP

A container ship anchored near the Bab al-Mandeb strait off Yemen’s coast, in the Gulf of Aden, on August 6. Photo: AFP

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery, testing new defence pact

A drone launching from an undisclosed location in Yemen. Photo:  Houthi Military Media Centre via EPA

Smoke rises during Houthi missile and drone strikes on the Red Sea port city of Mocha, Yemen, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

A missile being launched from an undisclosed location in Yemen. Photo: Houthi Military Media Centre via EPA

UN warns Yemen at greatest risk of renewed major conflict since 2022 truce

A sailor from the navy of Yemen’s Aden-based government stands on board a vessel patrolling a shipping lane off The Hanish Islands in the Red Sea in July. Photo: TNS

A TV broadcast on the latest developments in the Yemeni conflict as seen in Sanaa on Thursday. Photo: EPA

News

World

Yemeni government sources say the Houthis have reached the Red Sea ⁠islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha


Yemeni government sources say the Houthis have reached the Red Sea ⁠islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha.


Yemen’s Houthis close in on strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait in new threat to shipping

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Yemeni government sources say the Houthis have reached the Red Sea ⁠islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha

Yemeni government sources say the Houthis have reached the Red Sea ⁠islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha