{"id":153,"date":"2026-09-11T06:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:19:10","slug":"houthi-forces-have-taken-control-of-the-entrance-to-bab-al-mandab-strait-and-several-islands-in-the-red-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Houthi forces have taken control of the entrance to Bab al-Mandab Strait and \u201cseveral islands\u201d in the Red Sea."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"201\" height=\"170\" src=\"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images-edited.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-155\" style=\"width:454px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Houthi Advances Escalates Control Over Bab al-Mandeb Chokepoint and Red Sea Islands<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reports that Houthi forces have seized direct physical control over key access points to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait along with several strategic islands in the southern Red Sea.<sup><\/sup> The advance marks a major territorial shift along Yemen&#8217;s western coast, bringing one of the world&#8217;s most vital maritime trade bottlenecks under their immediate influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Territorial Push along the Coast:<\/strong>Following rapid moves through Hodeidah and Taiz provinces, Houthi fighters secured the coastal port city of Mocha and pushed further south toward the Dhubab district\u2014the gateway leading directly to the strait.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Control of Strategic Islands:<\/strong>Reports indicate Houthi forces have landed on and seized control of islands in the southern Red Sea, including the Hanish Islands and Zuqar Island, positioned near critical international shipping lanes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Withdrawal of Local Forces:<\/strong>Units aligned with the internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) have pulled back from coastal strongholds toward Aden.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Strategic &amp; Global Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bab al-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, handling roughly 10% of global seaborne trade and a substantial portion of petroleum shipments heading toward the Mediterranean and Suez Canal.<sup><\/sup> Direct control over both coastal positions and offshore islands enables the group to exert asymmetric pressure over commercial transit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The escalation has already caused ripples across global markets, triggering immediate surges in global crude prices and heightened security alerts for international commercial shipping traversing the corridor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Houthi Advances Escalates Control Over Bab al-Mandeb Chokepoint and Red Sea Islands Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reports that Houthi forces have seized direct physical control over key access points to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait along with several strategic islands in the southern Red Sea. The advance marks a major territorial shift along Yemen&#8217;s western coast,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images-edited.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipssi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}