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

ADEN/DUBAI, Sept 10 - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants have seized control of the historic port city of Mocha, four government military sources said, in a 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.

The group has launched attacks on the strategic Red Sea islands of 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.

Brent crude prices hovered above $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 U.N.-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.

WARNING TO TEHRAN

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 has 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.

ATTACKS ON SAUDI CITIES

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. The Houthis have demonstrated significant missile and drone capabilities, attacking oil installations and vital infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. REUTERS