What to know as fighting in Yemen escalates amid US-Iran tensions

Yemeni officials said the Saudi-led coalition has already recaptured several key areas around the Bab el-Mandeb that the Houthis took just weeks ago.

Cairo: Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s government have launched a military campaign to drive Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a critical trade route for oil and other goods.

The Houthis have responded by escalating missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, claiming to have struck the international airport in the capital, Riyadh, an Aramco refinery and Saudi military bases. They have also advanced around a city in western Yemen that has been a major battleground in the 12-year civil war.

The worst fighting in Yemen in years comes as tensions remain high between the US and Iran.

The US and Gulf nations have largely restored oil exports despite Iran’s month-long disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. But US President Donald Trump has warned he might resume full-scale military operations after the US congressional elections in November, and Iran could be planning proxy attacks.

The price of Brent crude was hovering around USD 100 per barrel on Tuesday, compared to roughly USD 70 a barrel before the Iran war, as the price of basic goods remains elevated far beyond the Middle East.

A new escalation in long conflict

Yemen’s conflict has had a devastating impact on the Arab world’s poorest country.

Houthi rebels swept down from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 on the side of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

Years of fighting settled into a stalemated proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing widespread hunger and misery in Yemen. The war killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

A 2022 ceasefire was largely honoured until this summer.

The fighting is focused on a critical Red Sea strait

Last month, the Houthis raced down the Red Sea coast, capturing the key port city of Mokha and islands in the Bab el-Mandeb, allowing them to tighten their declared blockade of Saudi shipping.

The strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12 per cent of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through the narrows, moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

It also became a crucial alternative route for Saudi oil exports when Iran initially shut down the Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel launched the wider war on February 28.

The Saudi-backed offensive to retake the Red Sea coast began after the Houthis captured Turbah, a town near the western city of Taiz that had served as a key staging ground for government forces.

Taiz has seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war and would be a major prize for the Houthis.

The fighting in Yemen has displaced more than 184,000 people since the beginning of August, according to the International Organisation for Migration. It said nearly 22,000 people were displaced between September 27 and October 3, marking a 26 per cent increase from the previous week. Nearly 6,500 were displaced on October 4 alone.

‘The Saudis are fed up’

Yemeni officials said the Saudi-led coalition has already recaptured several key areas around the Bab el-Mandeb that the Houthis took just weeks ago, including the crucial town of Dhubab.

The coalition also captured the towns of Bab and Hadeid, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters. Two witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said they saw government tanks and forces entering the towns.

Saudi officials have provided little information about the Houthis’ counterattacks. The kingdom acknowledged on Tuesday that two of its airports were attacked, leaving three lightly injured and damaging the facilities.

Two regional officials said Saudi Arabia believes the rebels won’t return to the negotiating table without military pressure. The officials were not authorised to comment publicly about internal Saudi deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ahmed Nagi, senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, said the Saudi-backed offensive aims to weaken the Houthis and “send a clear message that it has the capabilities to change the map of control inside Yemen.”

“The Saudis are fed up,” he said. “Not simply because the Houthis have refused to return to negotiations, but because they have continued to expand, become more maximalist in their demands and keep attacking Saudi Arabia.”

The US, Pakistan, and Turkiye step in to help

The US has provided support to Saudi Arabia in the ongoing campaign, according to a regional official and a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to reporters. The support included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the offensive, said the officials.

But Trump has shown reluctance to widen US military involvement in the Middle East and, at least for now, is not directing the US military to resume its own strikes against the rebels.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and NATO member Turkiye say they are deploying military forces to the kingdom under a new defence pact but have not provided troop numbers or other details.

Analysts say Pakistan’s combat experience fighting its own homegrown militants, alongside Pakistani and Turkish technological capabilities, could strengthen Saudi defences against threats such as drones.