Yemenis hold up rifles during a solidarity rally with Palestinians and the Gaza Strip, condemning Israel and the United States, in Sanaa, the Houthi-led capital, on May 16, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Huwais/AFP)
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have reached the Red Sea islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mokha, two Yemeni government sources said, in a dramatic strategic shift that could threaten the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most important shipping routes, Reuters reported Thursday.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified in recent days, with the 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 spokesperson said freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and the Strait remain safe and operations are limited to specific targets.
But they will only stop when the "aggression" against Yemen ends, added Mohammed Abdulsalam, in a post on X. The Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, set up to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators, said that navigation in the Red Sea was safe for all shipping companies, except Saudi vessels, which remain 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 recognized government and the Houthis has created a second theater of war in the Iran conflict that threatens global energy and commodity supplies.
Houthi militants earlier seized control of the historic port city of Mokha, four government military sources said. 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.
An ‘apocalyptic’ atmosphere
In a statement, Tarek Saleh, the commander of the forces that controlled the town of Mokha and are fighting as part of government forces, said he had moved his command center "to a safe location." The soldiers had suffered “heavy losses in recent days,” he admitted, referring to the Houthi offensive that was “planned and supported by Iran.”
The Houthis’ advance in Mokha and neighboring areas has driven many people to flee to Aden, the major government-controlled city in the south. Having left Mokha in the dead of night, Mohamed, 46, described to AFP an “apocalyptic” atmosphere in this historic port, which gave its name to mocha coffee. Mujahid Tahami, who also set off for Aden, said that some families had been “robbed by gangs."