How a Small Mountain Militia Created a Global Shipping Chokepoint
Born in Yemen’s northern highlands, the Houthis now hold positions on the Red Sea coast and Perim Island. Their territorial gains, missile capabilities, and threats against Saudi vessels are raising the stakes at Bab el-Mandeb.
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The Houthis began as an insurgency in Yemen’s northern mountains. They now hold positions inside Bab el-Mandeb, the strait through which ships pass between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Their advance along Yemen’s western coast has brought ground forces closer to a route they could already threaten with missiles and drones.
It does not give the group control over every vessel passing through the waterway. However, it does give them a new position from which to exert pressure.
From Saada to the Coast
The movement emerged in northern Yemen under Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.
Initially known as Believing Youth, it mobilized around religious and political grievances before mounting a broader challenge to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government.
Its slogan included the words “death to America, death to Israel,” reflecting the confrontational ideology that shaped its early years.
A series of wars in Saada between 2004 and 2010 gave its fighters experience and helped the organization endure.
As Yemen’s central government weakened in 2011, the Houthis expanded. Their capture of Sana’a in 2014 transformed them from a northern insurgency into a force at the center of the country’s war.
Missiles and drones later extended their reach beyond the territory they held.
Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the group began attacking commercial vessels it said were linked to Israel.
Its campaign subsequently widened to U.S.-linked vessels and other shipping, prompting U.S. and U.K. strikes on Houthi infrastructure.
A New Position at the Strait
The latest coastal campaign began with missile and drone attacks on government-aligned positions in August. Ground operations followed in early September.
Mocha fell on Sept. 10. Houthi forces reached Perim Island, which lies inside Bab el-Mandeb, the following day. They also took parts of the Hanish archipelago farther north.
Withdrawals by government-aligned forces helped the Houthis move quickly along sections of the coast.
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council has called the losses temporary, while its forces regroup around Taiz and the western coast.
Mocha lies about 50 kilometers north of Bab el-Mandeb. Together, the coastal positions and Perim Island give the Houthis a broader base near the strait's approaches.
Weapons and External Support
The movement’s roots are Yemeni, but its military growth has been accompanied by Iranian support.
A 2025 U.N. Security Council report described increasingly sophisticated weapons reaching the Houthis.
A seizure of more than 750 tons of military material in June that year included missiles, warheads, drone engines, radar equipment and air defense systems.
The report said some systems had characteristics associated with Iranian-made weapons, while also noting the Houthis’ capacity to assemble and produce weapons domestically.
Reuters reported in July, citing four sources, that Iran had flown Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, advisers and missile and drone equipment from Tehran to Yemen on July 13.
If accurate, the transfer would point to support extending beyond hardware to technical expertise.
The group’s current position combines those longer-range capabilities with access to territory near the maritime route.
Saudi Vessels in the Target Set
The Houthis have identified Saudi ships as potential targets even while telling U.S. officials during talks in Oman that they would refrain from attacking American, Israeli, and other commercial vessels.
Those statements describe the group’s declared intentions, not a guarantee of safe passage.
The group has also claimed attacks on Saudi targets. On Sept. 19, it said it struck “sensitive” sites in Riyadh; Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile headed toward the capital.
Other Houthi claims involving Yanbu and Saudi targets have not all been independently verified.
Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline carries crude to Yanbu on the Red Sea, allowing some exports to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
That makes threats to Saudi-linked shipping in the southern Red Sea especially consequential when traffic through Hormuz is disrupted.
Pressure Without a Blockade
Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and forms part of the route between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal. At its narrowest, the strait is about 29 kilometers wide.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration figures cited in the draft, oil flows through it rose from an average of 3.9 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2025 to 8.1 million in the second quarter of 2026.
The Houthis would not need to close the strait to affect trade. Repeated attacks, or a credible threat of them, can raise insurance and security costs and lead shipowners to take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.
The fighting also carries a cost within Yemen. The U.N. says at least 125,000 people have been displaced since Sept. 1, with combat concentrated along the western coast.
The question now is whether the Houthis use their new positions mainly to consolidate territory or to sustain pressure on vessels near Bab el-Mandeb.
Their path from Saada to the strait has given a once-local insurgency the means to influence decisions far beyond Yemen.
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