Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Strike Saudi Oil Facilities, Take Strategic Red Sea Port in Yemen, Saudi-Backed Forces In Retreat

Eli Afriat: The Houthis launched a broad attack on Saudi Arabia overnight, targeting Abha Airport, the Aramco fuel terminal in Abha, King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, the Jizan refinery, and the fuel terminal in Najran. Seventy-three people are reported injured, and the Jizan refinery is still burning. Riyadh has vowed to respond (Afriat).

Today, the Iran-backed Houthi militants seized the strategic Yemeni port city of Mokha on Thursday after days of intense fighting with government forces.

Wall Street Journal explains Iran’s plan behind it all: The Revolutionary Guard used the calm created by the memorandum of understanding to lay the groundwork with allied militias around the region to step up attacks if needed, sending advisers to Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon to discuss the plans, the officials familiar with recent Arab intelligence findings said. The intelligence including intercepted communications showed the Revolutionary Guard sending commanders to areas controlled by Yemen’s Houthis to plan for a stepped-up confrontation with Saudi Arabia in coordination with Iraqi militias that also are backed by Iran (Wall Street Journal).

The Houthis have taken Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea after rocket fire and a boat-borne ground assault, a military source told AFP. It lies near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 10, 2026

Our embassy in Yemen is speaking up: The Houthis have brought Yemen nothing but suffering (Yemen).

BIG: Yemen’s Houthis have captured Mokha and swept roughly 2,600 km² of western Yemen in a rapid coastal offensive.

The advance targeted the western Taiz and southern Al-Hudaydah governorates, cutting through multiple districts in what's being described as one of the fastest… pic.twitter.com/FQ95qqEjkI

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 10, 2026

🇾🇪 BREAKING!!! Ansarallah forces have reportedly LANDED ON MAYUN ISLAND — directly inside the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Clashes are reportedly underway as Yemeni forces attempt to seize the extraordinarily strategic island, also known as Perim, which sits at the narrowest section of… pic.twitter.com/X2dgIkG3qY

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) September 10, 2026

Streiff at RedState: The IRGC regime is quite willing to burn down its proxy armies if it thinks it might give it an advantage. Iran encouraged Hezbollah attacks against Israel. This has resulted in the destruction of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon…. It has thrown its proxies in Iran to the wolves. Now it is ruthlessly tossing the Houthis into the struggle. This “martyrdom for thee, but not for me” attitude will be noticed throughout the region. I think this offensive could succeed precisely because the Houthis no longer have access to Iranian arms and money. In contrast, the Saudis and UAE have had a near-death experience with their oil trade and will not be willing to go through that again (RedState).

Developing…..

Houthi convoys have reportedly entered the city of Mokha. https://t.co/nKrIOyt0Zy pic.twitter.com/wFjvGPzg3H

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 10, 2026

BREAKING:

The Houthis in Yemen have taken control of a strategic Red Sea port city near the Bab al-Mandab Strait

The Iranian-backed Houthi terror group seized Mocha, less than 70 km from one of the world’s main maritime trade routes.

They are close to full control of the… pic.twitter.com/XzA0z0T06L

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 10, 2026

📍🇾🇪🇸🇦 NEW: Reports claim a mass surrender of pro-Saudi forces at Yemen’s Khalid bin Walid Military Camp to the Houthi movement.#Yemen #Houthis #SaudiArabia #MiddleEast #YemenWar #BreakingNews #Geopolitics pic.twitter.com/ze3wyNNVWP

— Girl (@I_amHonestGirl) September 10, 2026

Yemen: Rapid collapse of Saudi forces in the face of Houthi advances; the coastal city of Mocha have been captured

Controlling Mocha puts the Houthis closer to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's most important maritime passages.
pic.twitter.com/FElGY3TH1f pic.twitter.com/oOlb7b5APh

— Instagram (@Instagram8X) September 10, 2026

The Houthi achievement: A large, strategic area along the Red Sea coast has fallen into their hands

The attached map shows an area of 2,600 square kilometers that, according to those who published the map, the Houthis captured over the past 24 hours.

That is about seven times… pic.twitter.com/VExVNvqehx

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) September 10, 2026

Yemen’s Iran-Backed Houthis Sweep Toward Strategic Bab al-Mandeb

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Fierce offensive captures Yemeni port of Mokha and leaves Saudi-backed forces in retreat

By Summer Said and Saleh al-Batati, Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2026:

Iran-backed Houthi militants seized the strategic Yemeni port city of Mokha on Thursday after days of intense fighting with government forces.

Iran-backed Houthi militants seized the strategic port city of Mokha on Yemen’s west coast Thursday, Yemeni and Saudi officials said, further expanding their control near the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint for energy exports through the Red Sea.

The successful advance deepens the threat to Saudi oil exports at a time when Iran is crimping shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia had kept its exports up by piping crude across the desert to the Red Sea, but Houthi attacks have complicated that workaround.

The militants’ seizure of Mokha—the early coffee trading hub and namesake of mocha—came after days of intense fighting with Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces in a conflict that has intensified since early July. Earlier this week, the Houthis struck Saudi Arabia’s southern energy facilities and a military base with a large missile-and-drone attack that wounded dozens of people.

The escalating fighting in Yemen, the worst in the country in years, shows how the war in Iran is fueling instability throughout the Middle East and heightening the risk of further disruption to global energy flows after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused the worst oil-supply disruption in recent history. It also drags Riyadh back into Yemen’s civil war, a conflict it had tried hard to shake after a costly intervention beginning a decade ago that failed to dislodge the Houthis.

Saudi and Yemeni officials said the Houthis are now nearing complete control of the coast along the Bab al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to big Saudi oil markets in Asia. Seizing Mokha gives them control of a major resupply hub for government forces, and further advances could cut off the main supply lines to government forces in the south, they said.

Tareq Saleh, vice chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, reported casualties among government troops following days of relentless Houthi offensives.

Saleh said he ordered the establishment of a fallback command hub in a secure position to reorganize.

“It is a significant strategic setback for the Tareq Saleh-led National Resistance Forces and for the Saudi coalition,” said Umer Karim, a researcher on Gulf security at the U.K.’s University of Birmingham. “Houthis are now advancing towards securing a foothold over the Bab al-Mandeb, which will exponentially increase their leverage over maritime traffic passing through the strait.”

The Houthis are part of an array of militia groups throughout the Middle East that receive weapons and training from Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a part of Tehran’s strategy to project power in the region. The group has grown closer with Iran in recent years but is seen as having more independence from Tehran than other militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Houthis had remained largely on the sidelines of the current war between the U.S. and Iran until a ceasefire in Yemen unraveled in July. Fighting escalated in the country after warplanes from the Saudi alliance bombed the international airport in the Yemeni capital to stop a plane carrying a delegation of Houthi officials returning from Iran from landing.

The Houthis retaliated by declaring a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s nearby ports and began a series of attacks on shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb.

Yemen fell into a civil war after the Houthis stormed out of their northern strongholds to seize control of the capital, San’a, in 2014—a few years after a popular uprising that ejected a longtime autocrat from power during the 2011 Arab Spring.

Saudi Arabia intervened directly for more than half a decade. Since then it has backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government and led the coalition of Arab militaries that supported its fight against the militants.

The civil war left the country effectively split into two states, with the Houthis in control of large areas of the north.

Continued…..