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ADEN, Yemen (September 11, 2026) — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has seized Perim Island, the volcanic outcrop that splits the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into two shipping channels, completing a rapid offensive that has handed the group effective control of one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints.
Officials with Yemen’s internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government confirmed that Houthi fighters reached the island, also known as Mayyun, on Friday after government forces withdrew. An eyewitness described armed Houthi fighters “deploying along the Bab el-Mandeb shore and driving around in military vehicles” following their arrival by boat. Both a senior military official with the Yemeni government and a Houthi official confirmed the capture to reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The seizure capped an 18-hour blitz along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The Houthis captured the historic port city of Mocha on Thursday, then moved on the strategic coastal town of Dhubab — which sits directly across the strait from Perim — before reaching the island itself on Friday. Reports also indicated the group seized Zuqar Island and the coastal village of Murad during the same advance, leaving all of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline under Houthi control.
Perim’s location makes the capture strategically distinct from the Houthis’ previous pressure on Red Sea shipping, which has relied mainly on missiles and drones fired from onshore positions. Holding the island itself, alongside the adjacent coast, puts Houthi forces close enough to passing vessels to threaten them with artillery and other short-range weapons in addition to longer-range strikes. A Yemeni political analyst had warned in an interview earlier this month that if the Houthis took Perim, dislodging them would require “a massive international force and the navies.”
Strategic and Economic Stakes
The Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea and Suez Canal route to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, and carries a substantial share of global seaborne trade — with estimates from various outlets placing the figure at roughly 10 percent of global trade by one measure, and nearly a third of the world’s container traffic by another. Combined with Iran’s ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz amid its separate war with the United States, the two chokepoints together account for more than a quarter of the world’s seaborne crude oil and petroleum trade, raising the prospect of compounding pressure on global energy markets.
The Houthis have previously discussed, in consultation with Tehran, imposing a toll or “safe passage” fee on vessels transiting the strait — a move analysts say the group’s new position over both shipping lanes would make more practical to enforce.
The advance also opens a new front in the broader US-Iran war. Saudi Arabia, which has stepped up military action against the Houthis with reported US intelligence and targeting support, struck the airport at Mocha shortly after the Houthis seized it, though no casualties or damage were reported. Satellite imagery Friday also showed a large smoke plume along Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline — a key alternative export route for the kingdom that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz — with fire-detection data showing high-temperature readings at several points along the pipeline’s infrastructure, though the cause remained unconfirmed as of this report.
One regional security analyst said the significance of the moment lies in the Houthis now pressuring “both pillars of Saudi security simultaneously: southern Saudi territory and the Kingdom’s Red Sea strategic depth,” adding that Riyadh’s room to avoid a broader confrontation is narrowing.
Neither the Houthi political leadership in Sanaa nor the Yemeni government in Aden has issued a full public accounting of the offensive’s final territorial gains as of this report.
This is a developing story.
