How Ansarallah Swept Past Saudi-Backed Forces to Control Yemen’s Red Sea CoastA lack of cohesion among Saudi-backed forces helped pave the way for Ansarallah to seize the entirety of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast and control the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
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Yemen’s Ansarallah completed their control of the Bab al-Mandab on Friday following sweeping gains yesterday in the most significant shift in territorial control in five years of the country’s long-running civil war. Following days of escalating fighting in the western mountains of Taiz governorate, Saudi-backed forces of the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) of Yemen appeared to collapse on Thursday, allowing Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, to seize the strategically important port-city of Mocha. On Friday, Ansarallah forces took Mayum island, also known as Perim, which lies on the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait two miles off Yemen’s west coast. The small volcanic island acts as a natural choke point in the strait, narrowing the Red Sea channel to nine miles from the coast of Djibouti. Ansarallah fighters posted videos online of military vehicles driving down the runway—built in 2022 by the United Arab Emirates—at Mocha’s newly developed airport. Footage also showed detainees being released from the city’s central prison as Ansarallah took control. The advance puts the Houthis in direct control of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Around one-third of international cargo shipping passes through the strait, a route that has become increasingly important for oil exports in the wake of the U.S. war on Iran, which has shut off access through the Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula. Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, hailed what he called a “resounding victory” for Ansarallah. “Iran’s might in the Strait of Hormuz and the homegrown resolve of the resistance have driven the U.S. and its allies into a tactical and strategic impasse,” he wrote in a social media post. Saudi airstrikes were reported late on Thursday night and into Friday around Dhubab and Mocha, hitting the port and airport. Yemen’s civil war, which had been largely dormant since a Houthi-Saudi ceasefire was brokered in 2022, reignited in July when Saudi Arabia carried out airstrikes on Sana’a airport to prevent an inbound Iranian passenger plane from landing in the Houthi-controlled capital. The plane later touched down safely in Hodeidah. The Mahan Air flight was the first passenger jet to land in Houthi territory since Israel destroyed five commercial planes belonging to Yemen’s state airline Yemenia in May last year. In response, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on all Saudi-linked vessels, disrupting the Kingdom’s export of oil to Asia from its Yanbu terminal on the west coast that was exporting an average of 4 million barrels of oil per day to bypass the closed Strait of Hormuz. Houthi attacks on Saudi vessels followed, forcing the rerouting of Asian-bound oil tankers north through the Suez Canal and the much longer route east via the Cape of Good Hope. The incident relaunched fighting on the ground between Iranian-allied Ansarallah and the Saudi-backed IRG. The latter has been consolidating its power under Saudi direction since the sudden withdrawal by the UAE of its forces and support for Yemen’s anti-Houthi Southern Transitional Council (STC) in January during a spectacular falling out between the Kingdom and the Emirates. Since the violent UAE-Saudi split at the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia has sought to consolidate its hold over the Yemeni government and armed forces. A Yemeni Supreme Military Committee, created in January with the task of unifying the multiple fighting units including those previously under UAE command, is headed by Saudi commander Lieutenant General Mutlaq bin Salem Al-Azima. But any attempts at cohesion appear to have failed. Witnesses described to Drop Site armed men looting weapons, and combat vehicles from retreating IRG forces heading into the suburb of Buraiqa, five miles west of the Aden, highlighting the fractured nature of the anti-Houthi side. Other fighters were filmed selling their weapons as they fled on the road east of Bab al-Mandab. “They continue to grossly underestimate the capabilities of the Houthis,” Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the London-based Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program, told Drop Site. “At the same time, there is a fundamental problem of military coordination for the IRG forces.” Saudi-backed National Resistance Forces led by Tareq Saleh, nephew of Yemen’s long-standing president Ali Abduallah Saleh, who was killed by the Houthis in 2017, were heading the fight against Ansarallah on the Red Sea coast until their withdrawal on Thursday. Saleh and his fighters have subsequently been accused of betrayal and cowardice by Yemeni media channels and in social media posts by other fighters in the Saudi-backed side. Tareq Saleh’s media office did not respond to Drop Site’s request for comment on Thursday’s retreat. A day earlier, the IRG Minister of Defense came under attack from southern fighters while visiting the frontline against the Houthis in Al-Dhale, the home territory of UAE-backed STC leader Aidrous al-Zubeidi, who fled into exile in January during the Saudi push back against the STC that ended the UAE’s decade-long military presence in Yemen. In the midst of Ansarallah’s advances on Thursday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salaman reportedly called President Trump twice to appeal for U.S. strikes against the Houthis. Provisional numbers from airstrikes monitor Yemen Data Project recorded 77 Saudi air raids between September 4 and 10, marking the heaviest period of Saudi bombing on Yemen since early 2022. The Houthis also stepped up attacks inside the Kingdom this week, launching a wave of ballistic missiles and drones on Tuesday that hit state oil facilities in Abha, Najran and Aramco’s facility in Jizan resulting in 73 wounded civilians, according to Saudi officials. Residents in Aden, which remains under IRG control, told Drop Site News that hundreds of displaced families were arriving in the city from the Red Sea coastal towns and villages. At least 46,000 people have been displaced since fighting escalated last week, according to new figures released on Friday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), up from 18,500 reported by IOM on Tuesday. The price of crude oil, already rising to over $100 a barrel this week due to the U.S.-Iran conflict over the Strait of Hormuz, jumped a further 6.5% on Thursday following Ansarallah’s territorial gains. Rising oil prices are expected to have a further knock-on effect on borrowing costs set by central banks. The European Central Bank put up its interest rate by a quarter point on Thursday. Bank President Christine Lagarde cited the region’s instability in the decision, saying in a press conference that “the conflict in the Middle East continues to generate inflation pressures, and inflation is set to remain well above target for an extended period.” The U.S. Federal Reserve is due to announce its decision on rates next week. Ansarallah officials sought to downplay any threat to shipping in the Bab al-Mandab. Their Supreme Political Council released a statement after the gains on Thursday saying that “navigation in the Red Sea remains safe” although Saudi vessels remain a target. The Saudis are now forced into a whole new war with the Houthis, says Al-Muslimi. “This is unprecedented and they can’t let the Houthis get away with attacks like this inside Saudi Arabia. The economic impact would be too huge and it would set a precedent for anyone else who wants to attack them.” As for the international community and their response to the Houthi capture of the Bab al-Mandab, Al-Muslimi added: “They are out of tools, time and imagination.”
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