Houthis close in on Bab el-Mandeb Strait

• Iran-backed rebels seize Yemeni port • Fighting with govt forces escalates • Advance threatens oil exports in Red

WASHINGTON/ DUBAI/CAIRO:

Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of Yemen's port city of Mocha on Thursday and advanced down the Red Sea coast to strategic islands, military sources said.

Yemeni government military sources said the Houthis had gained further leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern outlet of the Red Sea and one of the world's most important shipping routes, and had reached the islands of Hanish.

If the Houthis were to gain control of the waterway on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, it could give their sponsor Iran a critical advantage in the war with the United States, reducing supplies through a second major transit corridor and sending oil prices surging.

It would also make it harder for Trump to find an exit from a war that has hurt his Republican Party's electoral prospects ahead of the November midterms.

Yemen's Houthi-run humanitarian operations coordination centre said in a statement that Red Sea navigation is safe for all shipping companies except for Saudi vessels.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said, without elaborating, that the group's operations were defensive and would stop once attacks on Yemen stopped.

Yemeni government, Iranian and regional sources told Reuters the Houthi advance down the coast this week came with direct guidance from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal on Thursday cited US and Middle East officials as saying Iran had resumed producing ballistic missiles from existing components while working in underground facilities.

 

Oil prices jump

Brent crude prices jumped as much as 4% on Thursday to $105 a barrel on concern over disruption to supply routes.

The Houthis entered the current war alongside Iran with an attack on Israel in March, but largely stayed quiet before declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and stepping up attacks on the south of the kingdom this month.

Tensions in the region remained high, with Saudi civil defence authorities issuing emergency alerts in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time in 24 hours, as the Houthis attacked.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia's Yemeni allies in the internationally backed government and the Houthis follows the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region by the US and Iran this week since the war began with US and Israeli strikes in late February.

Seen as part of a regional alliance known as the "Axis of Resistance" backed by Iran, the Houthis have also rallied behind the Palestinians in the Gaza war, firing drones and missiles at Israel and attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Yemeni government forces and their allies are relocating south along the Red Sea coast to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait, across from the island of Perim, government military sources said. Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.

Bab el-Mandeb, or the Gate of Tears, named for its perilous navigation conditions, lies between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast, making it a major prize for the Houthis, who control Yemen's most populous areas and much of the north.

It is one of the world's most important routes for crude oil and fuel from the Gulf bound for the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, or the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline on Egypt's Red Sea coast, as well as commodities bound for Asia, including Russian oil.

Just seven vessels transited the strait on Wednesday, half the 10-day average, preliminary ship-tracking data showed.

Iranian state media said on Thursday the Revolutionary Guards Navy had struck a US unmanned vessel at the entrance to Hormuz.