Overview
- Houthi fighters entered and seized the Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday, positioning themselves roughly 50 miles from the Bab el‑Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
- Drone and missile attacks on the Saudi cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran wounded at least 73 civilians and sparked fires at oil and refinery facilities, temporarily halting some operations.
- Saudi-backed and government-aligned forces reported dozens of retaliatory airstrikes across Taiz, Hodeida, Jawf and Marib as ground clashes continued along Yemen’s western coast.
- U.S. Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian crude tankers after missile incidents involving a U.S. warship while Iran and its proxies claimed strikes on merchant vessels, a set of competing claims with limited independent verification that helped push Brent crude above $100 a barrel.
- The advance deepens a link between the Yemen front and the wider Iran‑U.S. confrontation because multiple sources report Iranian arms, funding and senior advisers aided the Houthi campaign, a development that raises shipping costs, risks longer trade routes and could draw regional partners into wider military steps.