Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen's historic port city of Mokha on Thursday, four Yemeni government military sources said, gaining greater leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital global shipping route.
The Houthis are launching attacks on the strategic Red Sea islands of Hanish, the government sources told Reuters. Government forces and their allies are relocating south to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait, across from the island of Perim.
Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.
There has been an escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia's Yemeni allies in the internationally backed government and the Houthis in recent days, creating a second theater of war in the Iran conflict that threatens global energy supplies.
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 war.
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.
Blocking the narrow passage would isolate Gulf oil-producing countries, such as energy superpower Saudi Arabia, from their main shipping routes after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz – the primary maritime energy artery between Asia and Europe.
The escalating conflict in Yemen comes as Iran and the United States staged their biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region since the war began in February.
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 center in a safe location.
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.
Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, in an effort to prevent the crisis from spiraling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran 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 traveled to Yemen to help coordinate the attacks.
The Houthis, a military, political and religious movement that rules most of northwest Yemen, have disrupted global trade and energy markets with attacks on cargo ships and tankers in the Red Sea.
They began firing on ships and launching drones and missiles at Israel in November 2023, saying it was acting in support of Palestinians during Israel's genocidal war in Gaza that began the previous month.
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.
Hundreds of women and children left Mocha Thursday for the provinces of Lahj and Aden, controlled by the Saudi-backed government, seeking shelter after losing relatives in fighting between the Houthis and government forces, according to Yemeni government data.
In areas of Taiz and al-Hodeidah provinces, more than 20,000 people have been displaced due to clashes over the past two weeks.
The Houthis said Wednesday that Saudi strikes hit the Yemeni provinces of Jawaf, Marib and Saada, bordering the kingdom, as well as Taiz in the south and al-Hodeidah 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 Houthis have stepped up attacks on the kingdom in recent days, wounding 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 recognized 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, to dislodge the group and restore the government.
The resulting civil war triggered one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises and led to years of bitter fighting.
