This image taken from undated video released by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah television channel on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, shows Houthi fighters chanting and raising rifles atop a military vehicle in Dhubab District, Taiz Province, Yemen, according to the channel. (AP/Yonhap)
Iran has hailed the “resounding victory” of Shiite militant groups in Yemen and Iraq — part of what Tehran calls its informal coalition “axis of resistance” — in blocking Saudi Arabia’s routes to export crude oil.This has further complicated US President Donald Trump’s exit strategy for the war with Iran, which he insisted would end after the November midterm elections.Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the pro-Iran Yemeni Rebel Armed Forces, a renegade faction of Yemen’s military aligned with the Houthis, wrote on X on Friday that Houthi attacks drove out Saudi-backed (Yemeni government) forces from six areas covering 5,400 square km and that hundreds of enemy personnel from 38 brigades were killed, captured or wounded.The Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera said the Houthis on Thursday morning seized Mocha, a port city along the Bab al-Mandab Strait, after fierce fighting with government forces. The next day, the Houthis reached Dhubab, another coastal town in the south, and landed on Mayun Island off the coast of the strait.The Houthis thus secured control over the entire Red Sea coastline in western Yemen, including the strait.In a statement issued Friday, they said they would block Saudi vessels from passing through the strait but not those of other countries. Since declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20, the Houthis have launched anti-ship missile attacks with a range of 500 km from inland positions.They can now strike vessels from the coast with greater precision using artillery fire or underwater drones. In a video statement that day, a Houthi fighter said the group no longer needed missiles or drones, arguing that artillery positions along the coast could allow it to strike Saudi oil tankers simultaneously from multiple directions.On Thursday, pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq struck Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pipeline with drones. Following damage to above-ground pumping facilities, the Saudi Ministry of Energy on Friday temporarily shut down the pipeline, which transports oil produced in the Persian Gulf region in the east to export terminals on the Red Sea coast in the west.
