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

Yemen's internationally recognised government announced on Monday that its forces, backed 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 large-scale military campaign aimed at wresting control of all territory currently held by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which has controlled the capital Sanaa and vast swathes of northern Yemen for over a decade.

The Yemeni military stated that a coalition of pro-government factions—including National Shield, Giants Brigades, and Tihama Resistance forces—had captured the Red Sea port city of Mokha on Monday afternoon, supported by Saudi air strikes. Mokha, a historic coffee-trading hub, sits strategically along the Red Sea coast and overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait, through which an estimated 12 percent of global trade normally passes. Control of this waterway carries immense geopolitical significance, as it serves as a gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal.

However, conflicting accounts quickly emerged regarding the extent of the government's territorial gains. Unnamed Yemeni government and military sources told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that pro-government forces had only reached the outskirts of Mokha, stopping short of full control. Four government sources informed Reuters that Houthi fighters were retreating late on Monday, but the situation on the ground remained fluid and difficult to verify independently.

Government military sources speaking to AFP declined to confirm the city's capture but did report that "our forces took control of the Dhubab military airfield and cut the road linking the Dhubab district to the Bab al-Mandab area." Earlier in the day, the Yemeni military had claimed its forces seized Dhubab airport, located approximately 45 kilometres (27 miles) to the south, and were besieging Houthi fighters inside the nearby town. Houthi-run media outlets promptly denied these reports, asserting that government forces had made no advances in Dhubab.

The offensive's opening day saw operations launched on multiple fronts, including near the capital Sanaa, which fell to the Houthis at the start of the civil war twelve years ago. The Saudi-led military coalition reported that its fighter jets were providing "round-the-clock" air support to pro-government ground forces and had destroyed 324 "high-value" targets since the campaign began. The scale of these air operations underscores the intensity of the renewed conflict and the coalition's commitment to reversing Houthi territorial gains.

In a significant regional 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 into Saudi Arabia under the invocation of their Mecca defence pact. This pact, which formalises mutual defence commitments among the signatories, signals a broadening of the conflict's regional dimensions and raises the prospect of a wider confrontation involving multiple state actors.

The humanitarian toll is mounting. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that 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 military actions. These allegations of civilian casualties are likely to intensify international scrutiny of the coalition's air campaign, which has faced repeated criticism from human rights organisations in previous years.

In a further escalation, the Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Co-ordination Centre issued a warning to civilian airlines that Saudi airspace—excluding the skies above the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina—was no longer safe. The centre declared that the airspace had become "a theatre of operations," a move that could disrupt commercial aviation across the region and magnify the economic fallout of the conflict. Such warnings are rare and represent a significant escalation in the Houthis' efforts to impose costs on Saudi Arabia.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned "the continued Houthi cross-border attacks" on Saudi Arabia and expressed deep concern about "the sharp escalation in fighting," according to a statement provided to AFP. The UN's response reflects growing alarm within the international community that the conflict, which had largely been frozen by an informal four-year ceasefire, is now spiralling back toward full-scale war with potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences for Yemen's civilian population.

The offensive was formally announced on Sunday by Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council. He declared the launch of a campaign dubbed Operation Yemen Dawn, with the stated objective of retaking all territory held by the Houthis. Al-Alimi insisted that all opportunities for de-escalation had been exhausted and called upon all forces to carry out their assigned missions "until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia." His remarks suggest a maximalist approach with no room for negotiated settlements in the immediate term.

The announcement followed reports that Houthi fighters had cut a mountain road near the south-western city of Taiz, effectively surrounding government forces and residents there. Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been a flashpoint for years and remains a key battleground. The Houthis also claimed to have launched ballistic missiles and drones at oil facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh and the Khurais area, describing these as retaliation for dozens of Saudi strikes on their territory. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree stated on Telegram that the group had attacked Riyadh's international airport, an Aramco oil refinery, and Abha airport, among other targets.

BBC Verify examined satellite imagery from Saturday, which revealed thick, dark smoke rising from the site of a strike at the Aramco Riyadh Refinery in the city's south-east. A similar plume of smoke was visible from the Khurais Central Processing Facility, as well as from a potential strike point in imagery from Sunday. This visual evidence corroborates some of the Houthis' claims regarding the scale and reach of their retaliatory attacks, though the full extent of the damage remains unclear.

The conflict's deeper roots trace back to 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa, triggering a civil war that has devastated Yemen. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened militarily in an attempt to restore the government's rule. The war has since killed hundreds of thousands of people—both directly through fighting and indirectly through hunger, disease, and the collapse of basic services—and has left the country facing what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

A four-year informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and commenced missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities, and tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis framed these actions as retaliation for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they attributed to the kingdom. Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen's south-western Red Sea coast, quickly ousting pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including Mokha, Dhubab, and Perim (Mayyun) Island. Monday's government offensive represents a direct attempt to reverse those losses and reclaim the strategic initiative.

The coming days will be critical in determining whether the government's claims of securing the Bab al-Mandab Strait prove durable or whether the Houthis can mount a counter-offensive. With regional powers now mobilising under the Mecca defence pact and the UN warning of sharp escalation, the conflict appears poised to enter a new and potentially more dangerous phase—one with profound implications for regional stability, global energy markets, and the already beleaguered civilian population of Yemen.