Yemen · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Iran-Backed Houthis Seize Mokha, Capture Perim Island and Hanish Islands in Yemen
Houthis captured Mokha port city on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. They seized Perim Island and the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands.
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Houthis seize Red Sea leverage
Iran-backed Houthi forces seized the Yemeni port city of Mokha on the Red Sea coast on September 10, and then pushed south to capture the remaining Red Sea coast and Perim Island in the middle of the Bab al Mandeb Strait.
“On September 10, the Houthis seized the strategic port city of Mocha”
The Houthis also seized the Hanish Islands, an archipelago in the southern Red Sea roughly 100 miles north of Bab al Mandeb, giving them a direct hold on the Red Sea chokepoint through which significant international shipping flows.
A separate account said Saudi Arabia shut down its East-West pipeline a day after it was attacked by drones, and that Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured a strategic island at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, opening a new front in the Iran war.
In that same report, Saudi Arabia said the shutdown was "a precautionary measure" and blamed the attack on several drones that came from Iraq, while the Houthis boasted of gains along the coast and vowed "escalation for escalation" against Saudi Arabia.
Displacement and competing claims
As the fighting intensified along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, the United Nations estimated that more than 80,000 people had been displaced by the fighting since the start of September, and one woman described fleeing the town of Khawkha in Houthi-held Hodeidah after a mortar shell fell nearby.
She told Asharq Al-Awsat, "I saw with my own eyes cars and buses burning, and bodies of children and women were lying on the road in a horrific scene," and the report said the Saudi civil defense said a Houthi projectile fell near the border with Yemen, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings.
In parallel, Al Jazeera said the Houthi movement’s ability to maintain control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb area faced "major military and logistical tests," even after rapid territorial gains that altered a map of control that had remained almost static for the past four years.
Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Yemen, Saeed Thabit, warned that "Securing this extension requires large forces and continuous supplies," especially since the open nature of the coast makes it easy for aircraft to monitor and target movements.
Strait threats and regional stakes
The conflict’s stakes extend beyond Yemen’s coast because the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is described as a key shipping lane and an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, with Newsweek warning that a blockade backed by Ansar Allah missiles and drones could interrupt the flow of roughly 8.1 million barrels per day of crude oil, condensate and petroleum products.
“"they only need to make it dangerous enough that shipping companies decide the risk is too high"”
Newsweek quoted Yemeni analyst Hisham al-Omeisy saying, "they only need to make it dangerous enough that shipping companies decide the risk is too high," leading to higher insurance costs, ships going around Africa, longer delivery times and ultimately higher prices.
In a separate report, the BBC said the UN refugee agency reported at least 100,000 people had been forced to flee since renewed fighting began in Yemen, during which the Houthis seized the country’s western coast and the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The BBC also reported Qatar’s warning that closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait would be "catastrophic for the world as a whole," as Saudi Arabia pledged a firm response to Houthi attacks and the UN Security Council met to discuss the situation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait.