EDITOR’S NOTE: Casualty figures in this article come from the Houthi-affiliated Saba news agency, as carried by international wire agencies on Sept. 22. They have not been independently confirmed. Claims about strikes on Saudi infrastructure attributed to aggregation services are flagged as unverified.
In the last month, the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have “joined the Middle East conflict in dramatic fashion,” according to CNN — capturing a swath of the Red Sea coastline, launching missiles and drones at Saudi energy infrastructure, and targeting the Saudi capital Riyadh over the weekend. Their campaign appears to be entering a new phase: a major offensive aimed at cutting off government forces in central Yemen, in the Taiz region, with analysts saying the ultimate goal is control of the entire country, per CNN.
The Houthis control the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint at the Red Sea’s southern end — one of the world’s most important waterways, through which about 12% of global goods are typically shipped, CNN reported. Saudi appeals for U.S. airstrikes to reverse the Houthi gains have “fallen on deaf ears,” according to a regional diplomatic source cited by CNN — the U.S. is steering clear of the Yemen fight.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration prepared on Sunday to launch airstrikes against the Houthis after fresh pleas from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but that Trump called off the strikes at the last minute, even as personnel were loading bombs onto aircraft. Reuters could not independently verify the Times report, and the White House and U.S. Central Command did not respond to requests for comment. Rashid al-Alimi, president of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, asked Trump by phone on Sunday for U.S. military help; two sources told Reuters that Trump made no direct pledge of support.
Britain and France, however, have stepped in: on Monday both countries said they would provide defensive assistance to Saudi Arabia, according to wire-agency reporting via Qoshe. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham had earlier said he agreed to provide “defensive air-to-air refueling” for Saudi jets for a limited period, according to Reuters via CNN.
On Monday, Houthi officials said they had seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, following their seizure of the port of Mokha and another island last week — further tightening their grip on the Bab el-Mandeb shipping route, the Associated Press reported. China, a major Middle East oil importer, called the Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure ‘unacceptable’ on Monday and said it was ‘deeply concerned’ about further escalation, the AP reported. Separately, Iran blamed Saudi Arabia for Oman’s decision to postpone a meeting of regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz, the AP reported.
Saudi-led strikes on the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha killed at least six people and wounded eight others, the Houthi-affiliated news agency Saba said on Tuesday, as carried by international wire agencies via Qoshe. Saba said the dead included two children and a woman and described them as civilians. That casualty figure comes from a single origin — the Houthi-affiliated agency — and has not been independently confirmed.
Separately, Saudi authorities reported that debris from an intercepted Houthi drone fell in Taif, killing one person and injuring others, according to the news aggregation service Particle, citing Saudi authorities. Particle also reported that a strike damaged Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, reducing export capacity — Zark News could not independently verify the pipeline claim; it is included here as an attributed, unverified report.
G7 foreign ministers, meeting on the UNGA sidelines on Monday, called on Iran to end its “arming and support of Houthis in Yemen,” condemned Houthi strikes on Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and called on the Houthis to “immediately cease all military actions, all threats and attacks against civilian shipping, and to return to the political process in good faith,” according to Reuters.
The “Iran-backed” description reflects how Western governments characterize Tehran’s role; Tehran’s exact role in the Houthi campaign is asserted by Western governments, not independently verified here.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Sept. 22 that more than 130,000 people have been displaced in Yemen this month, with tens of thousands more potentially fleeing; planning projections indicate 100,000 more could be forced from their homes in the next three months, and more than 3,000 have fled by boat to Africa, according to Reuters. The Yemen humanitarian response plan was less than 20% funded before the renewed violence, the agency’s spokesman Babar Baloch said at a Geneva briefing, per Reuters.
The U.S. State Department warned Americans on Sept. 20 to reconsider travel to the Middle East, saying the conflict “has the potential to escalate rapidly,” according to LA Times Now.
Brent crude, which hit $109 amid the escalation, eased to around $100 on Tuesday as Iran signaled it could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters and market reporting.
Sources: CNN, Reuters, Reuters, wire agencies via Qoshe, Particle, Reuters, LA Times Now
