Yemeni Forces Claim Control of Strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait as Major Offensive Against Houthis Begins

Yemen's internationally recognized government announced on Monday that its forces, supported by Saudi Arabia, have successfully "secured" the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical maritime chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The declaration marks the opening phase of a broad military campaign aimed at rolling back territorial gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement over more than a decade of civil conflict.

According to a statement from the Yemeni military, the National Shield, Giants Brigades, and Tihama Resistance forces captured the Red Sea port city of Mokha on Monday afternoon, with Saudi air strikes providing close support. The Bab al-Mandab Strait, located just off Yemen's southwestern coast, is a vital global shipping corridor through which a substantial portion of world trade and energy supplies passes, making control of the waterway a matter of significant international concern.

However, the account of Mokha's capture was immediately contested. Unnamed Yemeni government and military sources speaking to the news agencies Reuters and AFP indicated that pro-government forces had only reached the city's outskirts by late Monday, with Houthi fighters reportedly pulling back. Military sources who spoke to AFP declined to confirm the city's fall but stated that government forces had taken control of the Dhubab military airfield and severed the road connecting the Dhubab district to the Bab al-Mandab area.

Earlier in the day, the Yemeni military said its units had seized Dhubab airport, located roughly 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of Mokha, and were laying siege to Houthi fighters in the adjacent town. Houthi-run media outlets denied that government forces had achieved any advances in Dhubab, underscoring the difficulty of verifying battlefield claims in a conflict where information is tightly controlled by both sides.

The Houthis did not issue any statement regarding the situation in Mokha. Instead, the group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, announced in a Telegram post that Houthi forces had launched ballistic missiles and drones at oil facilities owned by Saudi Aramco in Riyadh and the Khurais area. Saree also claimed attacks on Riyadh's international airport, an Aramco refinery, Abha airport, and other unspecified sites, describing the operations as retaliation for dozens of Saudi strikes on Houthi-held territory.

Saudi Arabia condemned the attacks and renewed its appeal for the permanent members of the UN Security Council to throw their support behind Yemen's internationally recognized government. The kingdom has been a central participant in the conflict since 2015, when it assembled a coalition of Arab states to intervene militarily and restore the Yemeni government to power after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

BBC Verify reported that satellite imagery captured on Saturday showed thick, dark smoke rising from the site of a strike at the Aramco Riyadh Refinery in the city's southeast. A similar plume was observed at the Khurais Central Processing Facility, as well as from a potential strike point visible in imagery from Sunday, lending some credence to Houthi claims of successful hits on Saudi oil infrastructure.

The humanitarian toll continued to mount. According to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV, Saudi air strikes killed a schoolgirl and a woman in the Sanhan and Saawan districts of Sanaa on Monday. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam accused Saudi Arabia of committing "dozens of massacres" and warned that the kingdom must "bear all the consequences" of its actions.

The Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre issued a warning to civilian airlines, stating that Saudi airspace—with the exception of the skies above the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina—was no longer safe because it had become "a theatre of operations." The advisory signaled the Houthis' intent to treat much of Saudi Arabia's aerial domain as a legitimate target zone, raising the stakes for regional air travel and commercial aviation.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned what he described as "the continued Houthi cross-border attacks" on Saudi Arabia and expressed deep concern over "the sharp escalation in fighting," according to a statement provided to AFP. The UN chief's remarks reflected growing international alarm at the pace with which the conflict has widened since a four-year informal ceasefire began to collapse in July.

The current offensive was formally announced on Sunday by Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council. Alimi declared the launch of Operation Yemen Dawn, a campaign with the stated objective of retaking all territory held by the Houthis. He insisted that every opportunity for de-escalation had been exhausted and called on all pro-government forces to fulfill their assigned missions "until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia."

The announcement followed reports that Houthi fighters had cut a mountain road near the southwestern city of Taiz, effectively encircling government forces and civilians in the area. The encirclement appeared to be part of a broader Houthi push that began last month, when the group launched a surprise offensive along Yemen's southwestern Red Sea coast and rapidly expelled pro-government forces from positions overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including Mokha, Dhubab, and Perim (Mayyun) Island.

A Saudi-led military coalition said its fighter jets were providing "round-the-clock" air support to pro-government forces and had destroyed 324 "high-value" targets since the offensive began. The scale of the aerial campaign suggests that Riyadh is committing significant resources to the operation, which could prove decisive in determining control over Yemen's Red Sea coastline.

In a notable development, Turkey and Pakistan—both allies of Saudi Arabia—convened an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday. According to a joint statement shared by Pakistan's foreign ministry, the two nations agreed to rapidly deploy military forces to Saudi Arabia under the invocation of their Mecca defense pact. The agreement could introduce a new multinational dimension to the conflict and further complicate regional security dynamics.

The conflict's roots trace back to 2014, when the Houthis ousted Yemen's government from Sanaa, triggering a civil war that has devastated the country. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government's rule, but the war has since settled into a protracted stalemate that has produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The informal ceasefire that had largely held since 2022 began to unravel in July, when the Houthis declared a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone strikes on Saudi airports, oil facilities, and tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis framed their actions as retaliation for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in Houthi-controlled territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.

With the launch of Operation Yemen Dawn and the Houthis' expanded campaign against Saudi infrastructure, the conflict now appears to be entering a more dangerous and unpredictable phase. Control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait remains the immediate strategic prize, but the broader trajectory of the war—and its implications for regional stability, global shipping, and civilian populations—hangs in the balance as both sides escalate their military operations.