Houthis take the Hanish islands and fire on King Khalid Air Base

Houthi forces moved onto Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish on 14 September after hundreds of government-allied troops left the islands, according to two Yemeni government officials and one Houthi official who spoke to international agencies. The archipelago sits about 160 kilometres north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Combined with last week's seizure of the port city of Mokha and Mayun, also called Perim, inside the strait itself, the group now holds a chain of positions along the southern Red Sea shipping lane.

The Hanish islands had been held by the United Arab Emirates and its southern Yemeni allies. Their fall followed a Houthi offensive that began on 3 September along the Red Sea coast in Hodeidah and southwestern Taiz. Government officials described the loss of Mokha as a painful defeat. The internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council ordered western-coast units to regroup. Foreign minister Afrah al-Zouba wrote to the United Nations Security Council asking for a firm international position on the coast.

The same day, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group had fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, in southwestern Saudi Arabia. He said the targets included fighter-jet hangars, radars, runways and ammunition stores. He framed the attack as a reply to more than 300 Saudi air strikes in five days, which he said were flown by F-15 and Typhoon jets from Khamis Mushait and Taif. Saudi authorities issued alerts in Khamis Mushait, Abha and other southern districts. Riyadh did not immediately confirm damage or casualties from Monday's claim.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs and described the Houthis as independent actors. Gulf states had already called off planned talks with Iran on Strait of Hormuz security after earlier Houthi strikes on Saudi territory. Oman said the delay was made in the interest of regional consensus. China said further Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure were unacceptable.

The geography matters more than the communiques. The Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries about a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas, has been contested since the Iran war opened. Traffic that once ran daily through Hormuz has been forced onto longer routes. Saudi Arabia has used the Red Sea and the East-West pipeline as alternatives. That pipeline is now in a three-to-five-week repair window after recent attacks. Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, is the remaining short path from the Gulf of Aden toward Suez and the Mediterranean.

Mayun sits in that mouth. The Hanish group sits on the approach. Mokha gives the Houthis a mainland port and a road toward Taiz. More than 80,000 people have been displaced in two weeks of fighting. Houthi positions on Mayun also sit about 32 kilometres from the United States military presence in Djibouti, across the water.

Brent crude traded near $107.82 on 14 September, with West Texas Intermediate near $103.22, after the Saudi pipeline outage and the Red Sea fighting. Those prices already include the Iran war premium. A second chokepoint under Houthi fire adds a separate risk to cargoes that had been rerouted precisely to avoid Hormuz.

Yemeni government forces launched air strikes aimed at retaking Mokha. Heavy fighting was also reported toward Marib and Taiz. The 2022 truce that had largely frozen the civil war is no longer the operating fact on the Red Sea coast. The Houthis have threatened larger attacks inside Saudi Arabia if Riyadh's air campaign continues. Saudi Civil Defence has already recorded civilian casualties in Jazan and other southern areas from earlier projectiles this month, including a strike that wounded two people and damaged a mosque.

Shipping companies now have to price three overlapping threats: Iranian action in and around Hormuz, Houthi missiles and drones against Saudi energy and air bases, and Houthi control of islands that sit on the Red Sea alternative route. Insurers and navies will treat those as one corridor. For Saudi export planning, the Hanish seizure is a problem of geometry. The kingdom can repair a pipeline. It cannot move the strait.

Whether government-allied forces can retake Mokha and the islands will decide how durable that geometry is. The withdrawals that handed over Hanish suggest the present line is thin. The next weeks will show if the regrouping order from Aden produces a counterattack that holds, or if the Houthis keep the chain they took this week.