Yemen Fighting Escalates as Houthis Push for Red Sea Coast Control

Fighting in Yemen has intensified sharply, with Houthi militants pressing to take control of the country's Red Sea coastline and gain leverage over the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The escalation runs parallel to a widening Iran war, adding new urgency to a conflict that has already produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Yemen's civil war began in late 2014, when the Houthi movement, formally known as Ansar Allah, ousted the Saudi-backed government of then-President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 to restore Hadi's administration. A United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted large-scale fighting, but the country now faces its most serious threat of a return to full-scale war.

On September 10, Houthi forces seized the historic port city of Mocha, moving closer to Bab el-Mandeb and aiming for complete control of Yemen's western Red Sea coast. The same day, Tarek Saleh, who leads the anti-Houthi National Resistance Forces on the west coast, ordered his troops to regroup and set up an alternative command centre in a safe location — a sign of Houthi territorial gains.

The Houthis remain Yemen's dominant military force, controlling the capital Sanaa and much of the north, including territory where an estimated 60% to 65% of Yemenis live. The Saudi-led coalition accuses Iran of arming, training and funding the group, which denies being an Iranian proxy and says it develops its own weapons. The Houthis have displayed missile and drone capabilities in attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, targeting oil installations and vital infrastructure.

Seen as part of Iran's regional "Axis of Resistance," the Houthis have also backed Palestinians in the Gaza war, firing drones and missiles at Israel and attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea. They entered the current war alongside Iran with an attack on Israel on March 28, largely stayed quiet for a period, then declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and stepped up attacks on the kingdom's south in September. The group has proven resilient, defying more than a decade of Saudi-led bombing as well as recent U.S. and British strikes.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, entered the conflict to prevent an Iran-aligned group from consolidating power on its southern border. Riyadh and Tehran remain long-standing regional rivals despite a China-brokered thaw. In August, the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran; two days later, the Houthis attacked Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery in defiance of the deal.

Yemen's internationally recognised authority is the eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, led by Rashad al-Alimi and based in the port city of Aden. Formed in Riyadh in April 2022 to replace Hadi and unify anti-Houthi forces, the council has been paralysed by the divisions it was meant to resolve. The government, reliant on Saudi airpower, and its allies have clashed with the Houthis in Taiz, Marib, Jawaf and Mocha.

The National Resistance Forces, led by Tarek Saleh — a nephew of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and a council member — were originally established with UAE support to battle the Houthis on the west coast. The force has maintained ties to Saudi Arabia and aims for a unified Yemen, positioning itself as a counterweight to both the Houthis and southern secessionists.

The Southern Transitional Council, trained and equipped by the UAE, sought secession for the south in January; the region was an independent state until unification with the north in 1990, and a 1994 secession attempt was swiftly defeated. Led by Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the STC is ostensibly part of the Saudi-led coalition but declared self-rule in the south in 2020. Tensions peaked in December 2025 when the group seized large swathes of Hadramout and Al Mahra provinces and reached the borders of Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni Congregation for Reform, or al-Islah, is a Sunni Islamist movement with historic ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. A key faction within the recognised government, it is viewed by the UAE and the STC as a terrorist organisation. Its main stronghold is Marib, the country's sole gas-producing region and home to one of its largest oilfields.

The UAE joined the Saudi-led coalition and provided some of its most effective ground forces. It announced a troop withdrawal in 2019, completed in 2020, but retained influence through the STC and other factions. Analysts say its motivations included antipathy toward the Muslim Brotherhood and securing shipping lanes in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden.