Iran-aligned fighters take strategic port city as IRGC-guided offensive threatens second global chokepoint
Houthi forces captured the Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday, according to four Yemeni government military sources, following a coordinated offensive launched September 3 along Yemen's Tihama coastal plain. The advance was guided by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, five separate military sources told Reuters, marking the group's deepest territorial gain in years.
Government forces under Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, commander of the Saudi-backed National Resistance Forces, confirmed what he called a "strategic retreat" south to Dhubab, a town that sits directly on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait opposite Perim Island. Saleh said his forces "paid a heavy price — martyrs and wounded" defending the city. The fall of Mocha extends a campaign that began with the Houthis' naval blockade declaration against Saudi Arabia in July.
Second chokepoint now in play
The capture of Mocha places Houthi forces roughly 75 kilometres from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a waterway carrying an estimated 12% of global trade and worth close to $1 trillion annually. Combined with continuing disruption at the Strait of Hormuz — where only seven vessels transited Wednesday, half the ten-day average — Iran and its aligned forces are now positioned near two of the world's most critical maritime arteries simultaneously.
Yemeni sources believe the operation is directed by Abdolreza Shahlaei, a senior IRGC commander, based on intercepted communications and captured-prisoner accounts. Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran instructed the Houthis last week to intensify attacks on Saudi Arabia, promising additional funding, weapons and senior officers — an escalation that followed strikes wounding 73 people across four Saudi cities on September 8. Saudi Arabia responded with what the Guardian reported as up to 40 airstrikes on Houthi positions Thursday, part of a pattern detailed in reporting on the Mecca pact warnings. Brent crude rose 4% to $105 a barrel on the news.
Observers are reading: whether the Mecca defence pact gets tested at Dhubab — and what that would mean for Saudi Arabia's allies.
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What comes next
Ahmed Nagi cautioned that "this is not the end of the battle, we will probably see more developments in the coming days." With fighting now spread across eight governorates and RUSI describing the situation as "spiralling out of control," the question is no longer whether Iran's regional pressure campaign has a maritime dimension — it plainly does. The question is whether Riyadh's coalition, and its Mecca pact partners, choose to contest Dhubab before the strait's southern gate changes hands too.
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