ReportHouthis Seize Yemen's Red Sea Coast as Oil Tops $100Aired September 12, 2026 at 3:59 PM UTCWritten September 12, 2026 at 4:02 PM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:11Houthi fighters have taken the islands inside the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.0:15That gate between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean carries about a tenth of the0:19world's seaborne trade, and oil is already above $100 a barrel.0:23Whether anyone intends to push them back is the question now hanging over the water.0:27The advance ran along Yemen's western coast.0:29On Thursday, Houthi fighters entered the port city of Mocha after a day of clashes.0:34The city that gave coffee its name, once the world's principal coffee port, and the0:38internationally recognized government's last deep water Red Sea harbor.0:42By Friday they had pushed on to Dubab, the final significant town facing the strait,0:47then Parham Island, the volcanic land in the middle of the waterway that splits it0:51into two shipping channels and carries an airstrip, then the greater and lesser0:55Hanish and Zukar Islands.0:57Government military officials say the takeover of the Bab al-Mandeb area is1:01complete.1:01The coastal strip the government held is effectively gone.1:04The strait is barely 30 kilometers wide at its narrowest, the southern gate of the1:08Red Sea and the Suez Canal route.1:10Roughly twelve percent of the world's oil and goods pass through it.1:14About eight point seven million barrels of crude and petroleum a day, a tenth of1:19global seaborne trade.1:20Holding Mocha, Param, and the Hinish Islands puts healthy forces directly on the1:24approaches to that lane, extending the range at which they can stop, search, or1:28strike a ship.1:29Markets have already answered.1:31Brent crossed $100 a barrel on September 9th, before Mocha even fell.1:36Then spiked above $105 after the port changed hands.1:40Some reports touching $108 to $109 before easing back to the low hundreds in thin1:45weekend trade.1:46WTI breached $100 for the first time since May 21, and oil jumped 6% in a single day1:52as tanker attacks multiplied.1:53Brent still sits below the year's high of $126 from April, but it has climbed1:59roughly a quarter since early August.2:01The disruption is more than a number.2:03Ships bound for Asia now face detours of about a month, routing around the Cape of2:07Good Hope, while refiners hunt for alternatives and freight costs climb.2:11The same lane is the one Saudi crude exports depend on, and the cost lands twice, on2:15consumers through fuel and freight, and on Yemeni residents displaced from the towns2:19that changed hands.2:20The seizure landed inside a widening fight with Riyadh.2:24Houthi missile and drone barrages on energy and civilian sites in southern Saudi2:28Arabia.2:29Aramco-linked facilities around Abha, Kamis Musheit, Jizan, and Najran wounded 732:35people, including women and children, and fires disrupted energy operations.2:39Saudi and coalition aircraft answered with intensified strikes across Houthi-held2:43Yemen, including on Moka airport after the port fell.2:46The fighting has been expensive in lives.2:49Eklid recorded at least 276 deaths in battle between Houthi and government-aligned2:53forces from September 3rd to 7.2:55Earlier tallies cited nearly 180 fighters killed in three days and more than 1203:00dead in the first days of combat.3:02A provisional compilation lists 278 killed on one side and 216 on the other, plus 293:08civilians and tens of thousands displaced.3:10Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sari claimed the offensive struck seven divisions3:14and 38 brigades.3:16Residents of Mocha described people injured in the streets as families fled.3:19Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam insists navigation stays safe and3:24uninterrupted and says operations will stop when the attacks on Yemen stop.3:28Yemeni military officials warn the takeover threatens freedom of maritime3:32navigation, trade and energy supplies.3:35The two statements describe the same stretch of water.3:38This is the second theater of a war now in its seventh month.3:41The Strait of Hormuz was shut down in March, after the United States and Israel3:45opened the conflict with Operation Epic Fury on February 28th.3:48Houthi leaders declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb in July, and the September3:53assault turned that declaration into physical control of the ground.3:56The same confrontation now presses two of the world's most important choke points at3:59once.4:00Tariq Saleh, vice chair of the Presidential Council, whose forces had held Mocha4:04since 2017, called the loss a tactical withdrawal.4:08Ordered his units to regroup and moved his command center south of the city,4:11acknowledging heavy losses and blaming Iranian planning and support.4:15A circulating audio clip in his voice ordering a withdrawal was denounced by his own4:18media as an AI clone.4:20Nobel laureate Tawakkil Karman publicly asked Council head Rashad Al-Alimi to4:24dismiss Sulleh and investigate him over Mocha falling without a fight, a political4:29accusation, not an official finding.4:31Al-Alimi called the events a regional and international issue tied to global trade.4:36Yemeni and Saudi officials describe the offensive as Iranian-directed with Iranian4:40arms aiding the capture.4:42Tehran denies controlling the group and Pakistan, under its defense pact with4:46Riyadh, called on Tehran to restrain it.4:48The outcome is a shift in who can bleed the world's energy trade, and for how long.4:53The Houthis now control the Yemeni side of the strait, the physical approaches to4:57the Red Sea's southern gate, and no force in the region has yet committed to pushing5:01them back.5:02Whether the advance stops at the shore is the question that now decides the price of5:06oil and the freight bill on everything that moves east.Explore with HeyDexFollow via RSSThe shortThe short ↗