The Houthis’ advance to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea threatens a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has attacked some vessels during more than six months of war.
But on the ground in Yemen, the rebels’ offensive means something very different. It could bring the kind of upheaval that killed 150,000 people and caused near-famine before a 2022 ceasefire.
“This renewed war should alarm us all,” the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned as the Houthis moved south.
In Aden, a woman was in tears Saturday over what the ensuing chaos meant for her fragile family.
“We saw soldiers shouting for a retreat as bullets flew all around, and we had no idea what was happening. One of my sons had a motorcycle, so I told him to take his children and flee,” said Durrah Ali Hassan, who took shelter in a relative’s house.
She said she was worried about the toll on her pregnant daughter, who already had been bleeding. “I was so worried that roads might get blocked and that my daughter would die.” She was now in a coma at a hospital, her mother said.
In just days’ time, the International Organization for Migration has revised its number of displaced people by 30,000 more, saying at least 76,000 people now have fled since July as fighting escalated.
Iraq’s government confirmed that attacks that shut down a key Saudi oil pipeline on Thursday had originated from its territory. An umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in Iraq denied their involvement while praising the Houthis for their “ongoing battlefield victories against Saudi forces.”
Regional officials have told The Associated Press that the Houthis and the Iraqi militias recently coordinated attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
As the latest events threaten even higher global oil prices, U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran was “probably” responsible for the pipeline attack, but tried to calm concerns.