Yemen: Over 120 Killed in Fight for Bab el Mandeb
The clash between Houthi rebels and Yemen's government over the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait has killed more than 120 people in two days, the deadliest fighting in Yemen in years.
Fighting between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government over the Bab el Mandeb strait has killed more than 120 people in just two days, the deadliest round of combat in Yemen in years. Bab el Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and forms the southern entrance to one of the busiest shipping corridors in the world, the route that continues through the Suez Canal toward the Mediterranean. Any shift in control over the strait carries consequences far beyond Yemen’s borders, including the cost and safety of oil shipments bound for European markets.
Offensive Began Thursday
The fighting broke out on Thursday, September 3, when the Iran-backed Houthis launched a ground offensive along front lines in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, backed by ballistic missiles, drones and artillery. The goal of the assault was to reach the Red Sea coast and cut off the government-held port city of Al Mokha, which has been under siege for weeks. In the opening push, the Houthis seized a military base atop a strategic hill west of Taiz that overlooks the surrounding area, a Yemeni military official confirmed to Al Jazeera.
By the next day, Friday, government forces had recaptured part of the lost ground: according to an official statement, they retook the Al Hazan and Al Makahna heights in the Jabal Habashi district, west of the city of Taiz.
The death toll shifted by the hour. AFP reported on Friday evening, based on its own tally from multiple sources, that 129 people had been killed, up from an earlier count of 81. That same day, Al Jazeera, citing the same AFP tally, reported “more than 120” dead, a discrepancy that reflects when each report was filed rather than any dispute over the number itself. A Yemeni military official put the toll at 24 government fighters killed on the west coast and another 15 in Taiz, while medical sources in Houthi-held territory reported at least 42 Houthi fighters killed.
Government Strikes by Air for the First Time
On Friday, September 4, Yemen’s government carried out its own airstrikes against the Houthis for the first time in this phase of the war: at least 15 strikes on Houthi positions, gatherings and vehicles in the Taiz and Hodeidah governorates, according to the Yemeni military. The aircraft belonged to Yemen’s own air force, not the Saudi-led coalition that has carried out the bulk of the air campaign against the Houthis for over a decade. It marked the first time the government in Aden has shown it can conduct airstrikes independently of its allies since the war began.
Houthi Goal: The Heights Above Bab el Mandeb
“The Houthis want Bab el Mandeb,” Mohammed al-Basha, an analyst at the US consultancy Basha Report, told AFP. A Yemeni official in Aden, the seat of the recognized government since it was driven out of Sanaa in 2014, spelled out the sequence: “Their goal is to seize the high ground above Bab el Mandeb and Al Mokha before attacking the coast.”
Al Mokha was under Houthi control until 2017, when Saudi-led coalition forces drove them out. Control of the high ground above the city and the strait threatens the supply corridor between Taiz and Al Mokha that government forces on the ground depend on, including the road near the towns of Al Bara and Makbana, which Al Jazeera named as the site of especially fierce fighting.
The toll on civilians is also rising. A ballistic missile hit a restaurant in Al Mokha during the fighting, and on Saturday, September 5, a Houthi missile strike on a busy road in the southwest of the country killed at least four civilians and wounded nine, according to the state news agency Saba.
Why the Strait Matters So Much
Bab el Mandeb’s importance has grown since Iran, at war with the United States and Israel, effectively shut down oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. That has made Bab el Mandeb one of the few remaining alternative export routes for crude oil from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, so any threat to passage through it feeds directly into energy price calculations far beyond the Middle East. The Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in July and have since attacked Saudi vessels, continuing a pattern of disrupting maritime traffic that they have pursued since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023.
The government, meanwhile, has sent reinforcements from Aden to Taiz at Saudi Arabia’s request. Whether it can halt the Houthi push toward the coast will depend on the coming days of fighting, above all around Jabal Numan, the hill overlooking the road between Taiz and Al Mokha that both sides, according to al-Basha, still regard as decisive for the outcome of this phase of the conflict.
