According to reports, their advance is facing little resistance after government-aligned forces withdrew from their positions.
If that continues, it could pave the way for the Houthis to seize more territory along the coast and move closer to Bab al-Mandeb, while increasingly threatening shipping in the crucial Red Sea trade route.
They’ve been battling it out over the past nine days and we knew that the Houthis were trying to push west of Taiz because their main goal, their main prize, was the takeover of the city of al-Makha (Mocha) and also the Red Sea coastline.
It gives the Houthis full advantage to prevent ships from crossing Bab al-Mandeb and also, more importantly, the ability to cut off three main supply lines to the government in the south of the country.
Beginning on Thursday, the Houthis launched an offensive aiming to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
A military official within the government told AFP that the Houthis had succeeded on Saturday evening in „cutting off the road linking Taiz to Mokha.“
According to three separate Yemeni military sources, 26 government troops and 31 Houthis have been killed over several hours of battles in the country’s southwest, AFP reported.
A Yemeni health source also told the French news agency that the death toll from a Houthi missile attack on a road in Yemen’s Taiz governorate earlier today now stands at six – an increase on the four reported by government-aligned sources earlier today.
Strikes by Yemen‘s Houthis on Sunday killed at least 11 people, a medical source in the Yemeni port city of Mokha has told AFP, after an earlier drone salvo targeted a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea coast.
A years-long truce in Yemen‘s civil war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government appeared to collapse last month.
Houthis’ expansion of cross-border attacks on government forces means the threat of all-out war between the two sides is no longer far-fetched.
A senior Saudi official, speaking anonymously to Reuters late on Thursday, said intelligence gathered by Saudi Arabia, the United States and other countries in the region indicated that civilian and economic sites could be targeted.
The potential targets include energy infrastructure, ports and airports.
Saudi Arabia had detected the movement of drones and missiles, according to the official, suggesting preparations for attacks from Iraq to the north and Yemen to the south.
The sources added that the casualty numbers were expected to rise.
Fighting in Yemen between the pro-Iranian Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified in recent weeks, after four years of relative calm.
(July 31, 2026)
The battle to restore the State institutions and eliminate the militias‘ coup isn‘t just the army‘s battle, but it is everybody‘s fight, al-Alimi stressed.
The President emphasized that the current stage requires political parties to reclaim their natural role as forces of enlightenment, mobilization and rallying against threats, to restore respect for the idea of the national state and to reinforce the isolation of militias and their destructive agenda.
The political parties need to make the battle to restore the State institutions a matter for the whole society, not only a government‘s task or issue, al-Alimi noted.
Military spokesperson says maritime blockade has forced Saudi tankers to avoid Red Sea route
Fourteen countries have backed a Saudi proposal to establish a multinational “Maritime Defense Alliance,” aimed at protecting international shipping routes and global trade, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement Thursday.
The countries are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia.
The ministry said military chiefs and other representatives from 43 countries attended a meeting on the initiative, either in person or by video link. A European Union delegation also took part.
While the new blockade has disrupted shipping in the region, Ansar Allah hasn’t announced a blanket ban on shipping through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Some Chinese ships loaded with Saudi crude have also been able to pass through the strait, and Reuters reported that Beijing had cleared each passage with Sanaa.
But as the US-Iran war and conflict across the region are escalating again, the chances of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait being completely closed are rising. The Al-Monitor report, which cited two diplomatic sources and an unnamed US official, said that Riyadh has invited around 50 nations to join the Red Sea coalition, but that US support was seen as vital for the initiative to take off, and it was unclear at this point if Washington would participate.
Der Bundestag hat am Donnerstag, 16. Oktober 2025, den Bundeswehreinsatz im Roten Meer um ein Jahr verlängert. Dazu lag ein Antrag der Bundesregierung für die fortgesetzte Beteiligung der Bundeswehr an der EU-geführten Operation Eunavfor Aspides zur Abwehr von Angriffen der Huthi-Milizen auf die Schifffahrt im Roten Meer vor (21/1372(Dokument, öffnet ein neues Fenster)). In namentlicher Abstimmung wurde der Antrag auf Empfehlung des Auswärtigen Ausschusses mit 435 Ja-Stimmen bei 69 Gegenstimmen und 77 Enthaltungen angenommen.
A senior official in Yemen‘s Houthi movement said on Wednesday that the group, and not Iraq‘s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), carried out earlier attacks on Saudi Arabia, accusing Riyadh of blaming Iraqi factions for operations they did not conduct.
Abdullah Al-Numi, a member of the political bureau of the Houthi movement (Ansarallah) told Shafaq News that the PMF had repeatedly denied attacking Saudi Arabia, while his movement had openly claimed responsibility for earlier operations against Saudi ports and facilities, including sites in Yanbu and Jizan.
A member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council has called for increased combat readiness within military and security units, describing the fight against the Houthis as a “fateful battle”.
Sultan al-Arada made the remarks during a meeting in Marib with Defence Minister, Taher al-Uqaili, and armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Saghir bin Aziz, where they “reviewed field conditions and progress of operational plans”, the Saba news agency reported.
Al-Arada said the campaign waged by government forces aims to restore state institutions and end “the rebellion” by the Houthis.
Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen „cannot be attributed to Iran“ and that the escalating tensions in the Bab al-Mandeb strait are “rooted in old disputes and issues“ between the two countries.
“We believe that there is no military solution to the issue of Yemen, Bab al-Mandeb, and other regional issues,” he said in an interview with the state-run Iran Daily newspaper.
Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that its coalition forces struck Houthi militia in Yemen after the Iran-backed group claimed to have attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea earlier in the week.
Air defenses in Saudi Arabia reportedly intercepted two ballistic missiles from Yemen.
The latest salvos appeared to indicate an escalation in fighting in a second front in the Iran war.
„I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,“ Mr. Trump told Axios, adding that he believed Iran‘s leaders „want to negotiate,“ but aren‘t yet ready to make a deal.
„They haven‘t received enough pain yet,“ he told the outlet.
U.S. forces carried out a 12th consecutive night of strikes across Iran on Wednesday, and Mr. Trump warned in a social media post Thursday that the Islamic Republic and its Houthi allies would both face „major military punishment“ if the Yemeni rebels repeat their attacks from earlier this week on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
(10 hours ago)
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said its armed forces targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, claiming the vessels had violated a ban imposed by the group.
Saudi Arabia‘s state media later confirmed that one of its vessels was struck and the bow of the ship caught fire, with a source adding that all crew members onboard Encelia were safe.
President Trump on Tuesday suggested he could restart a bombing campaign in Yemen in response to the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, enforcing a blockade on the Red Sea.
Trump’s comments came after Ansar Allah announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, which came a week after the Saudis bombed Yemen’s Sanaa airport to prevent the landing of a plane carrying a Yemeni delegation from Iran to enforce its long-standing blockade on the country that was eased under a 2022 ceasefire deal but never fully lifted.
Trump spoke to Saudi Crown Prince on Friday in what many believe was to get Trump’s approval for what MBS was planning to do as far as the Houthis in Yemen were concerned.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced a maritime embargo of their foe Saudi Arabia after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years.
The rebels “declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye,’ effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement”, military spokesman Yahya Saree said
(July 18, 2026)
Pakistan reportedly warned Iran that any attack by Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia would be viewed as an attack on Pakistan, reaffirming its defence commitment to the Kingdom.
The warning follows recent Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, raising fears of a broader regional escalation and placing Islamabad under growing strategic pressure.
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In a televised statement, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi addressed the Yemeni people, claiming readiness for full-scale escalation „if the Saudi enemy chooses full-scale escalation“.
Iranian officials have asked Yemen’s Houthis to block the Red Sea if the U.S. carries out strikes on Tehran’s energy sites, according to Reuters.
Two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter reportedly told the outlet that the Houthis had been informed of the request, which was discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan, which helped broker an interim deal last month in the war between Washington and Tehran, signed a mutual defence agreement with Saudi Arabia last year and thousands of Pakistani soldiers have been deployed to the kingdom, alongside a squadron of fighter jets.
Pakistan had already voiced anger about Iranian strikes on Saudi Arabia earlier this year, but regional analysts and officials said the attacks this week had pushed Islamabad‘s frustration with Iran to a new level as they raised the prospect of a new Saudi-Houthi conflict.
(July 15, 2026)
The U.S. State Department is aware of reports that President Donald Trump has given Saudi Arabia the green light to launch military action against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement following attacks on the kingdom, a department spokesperson told MBN in a statement.
(July 14, 2026)
The country‘s size relative to other much smaller Gulf states meant it fared better during the war, continuing to export oil via a pipeline from the east to its west coast on the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
A wider conflict with the Houthis, who have in the past targeted Red Sea shipping, could challenge that.
The Saudi government‘s communication office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(July 13, 2026)
Tehran condemned the attack on Sanaa airport, with a foreign ministry spokesperson describing it „as a clear violation of international law“.
But following the strikes on Sanaa, the head of Yemen‘s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, said he had „ordered that the scope of the confrontation not be expanded“.