Houthis clash with Yemen govt forces over key Red Sea choke point, 81 killed

Clashes between Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces have killed at least 81 people in Yemen.

The violence has escalated in recent weeks as the Houthis push to seize territory along the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea. Control of the waterway would give the Houthis a chokehold over the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

AFP reported that a military official on the coast said 24 of his personnel had been killed, while another official in the Taiz area said 15 had died there. Medical sources further said that at least 42 Houthi militants had also been killed.

The development comes at a time when the West Asia conflict has expanded beyond a confrontation between the United States and Iran. While the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked amid the US-Iran stalemate, the Houthis have sought to expand the conflict to the Bab al-Mandab by targeting ships, particularly those linked to Saudi Arabia, and threatening to blockade the Red Sea.

Since the early 2010s, Yemen has been embroiled in an internal conflict involving the Houthis, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, and other rival factions. Years of war plunged the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and fragmented it into areas controlled by different forces. In 2022, a UN-brokered truce largely froze the frontlines even after it formally expired later that year. The fragile calm began to unravel following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023 when the Houthis began launching missiles and drones towards Israel and attacking ships in the Red Sea.

The risk of a return to full-scale war in Yemen is now at its highest level in years as Houthi military activity has expanded beyond aerial and maritime attacks to renewed ground offensives.

Houthis eye Red Sea chokepoint of Bab al-Mandab

The Houthis have launched a ground assault alongside rocket and drone attacks aimed at occupying coastal areas along the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

AFP reported military sources as saying that the Houthi offensive aims to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, which has been under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab.

The Houthis have captured elevated positions overlooking government-held areas near the Red Sea, the coastal town of Khokha, and the city of Taiz further inland. They could also use these elevated positions to target ships passing through the strait.

A Yemeni official told the news agency that the government had sent reinforcements to Taiz from Aden on Saudi orders. The official said the Houthis wanted to control the hills overlooking Bab al-Mandab and Mokha before attacking the coast.