Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha on Thursday gaining control over a vital maritime corridor and sending global oil prices surging.
The capture of Mokha places Houthi forces just 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait a critical waterway that typically handles 12 percent of global trade. The advance directly threatens Saudi Arabia’s primary oil export route and provides Tehran with significant geopolitical leverage amid ongoing Middle East conflicts. Following the takeover the Brent crude prices jumped 4 percent to $105 a barrel over supply disruption fears.
Residents reported Houthi forces heavily deployed across Mokha forcing markets to shutter and blocking key western roads. Local doctors were forced to flee a seized hospital also joining other residents escaping south toward the Saudi-backed stronghold of Aden.
The violence has spilled into neighboring Taiz province. Yemeni Joint Forces reported that Houthi rebels shelled civilian sites in the Jabal Habashi district and the crucial Hayjat al-Abd road linking Taiz to Aden. State-run media also reported a horrific attack on a civilian convoy carrying displaced families from Mokha, Hays and Al-Khawkhah. At least 15 civilian vehicles were burned and resulting in unconfirmed casualties including women and children.
The fall of Mokha marks the Houthis' most significant territorial gain since a 2022 UN-brokered truce. Regional military sources indicate the rapid coastal advance was executed under direct guidance from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The rebels now threaten the Hanish islands and are pushing toward Dhubab directly across from Perim Island at the mouth of the strait.
Yemeni government forces and their allies are urgently relocating south to defend these remaining coastal chokepoints.
Adding to the region's volatility the US and Middle Eastern officials told the Wall Street Journal that Iran has resumed limited production of ballistic missiles from existing components in underground facilities.
With the Red Sea route now severely compromised and shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb already down 60 percent since late 2023 the renewed Houthi aggression risks plunging Yemen back into full-scale civil war while devastating global energy supply chains.
