By Haris Qureshi — SCN News
DUBAI — Houthi forces pushed on Monday to capture strategic mountain positions in southwestern Yemen that could consolidate their recent gains around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as Washington stopped short of joining Saudi Arabia’s widening campaign against the Iran-aligned movement. The advance has shifted the focus of Yemen’s rapidly escalating conflict from the Red Sea coastline to the high ground overlooking routes connecting Houthi-held areas with territory controlled by Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Five Yemeni military sources told Reuters the Houthis were seeking control of the Kahboub Mountains across Taiz and Lahij provinces, with fighting concentrated around the outskirts of the mountainous Al-Wazi'iyah district and Ras al-Ara on the coast. Capturing those heights could help the Houthis protect the rear of forces deployed around Bab al-Mandab, threaten government supply routes and potentially open additional fronts toward the south. The fighting follows a lightning Houthi offensive this month that seized key stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and significantly increased pressure on Saudi-backed forces.
The battle for the mountains is strategically important because holding a coastline and securely controlling it are different military problems. Government forces operating from the south could threaten Houthi positions near the strait if they retain access through the surrounding highlands, while Houthi possession of commanding terrain would make counterattacks and reinforcement routes more difficult. Earlier fighting in western Taiz had already centred on elevated positions overlooking roads toward Mocha and Bab al-Mandab, demonstrating how control of Yemen’s rugged terrain can determine access to the coast.
The new ground offensive is unfolding as questions grow over how far the United States is prepared to go to prevent further Houthi territorial gains. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had prepared on Sunday to launch airstrikes against the Houthis following renewed appeals from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but President Donald Trump cancelled the operation at the last moment as bombs were being loaded onto aircraft. Reuters said it could not independently verify that account; U.S. Central Command referred questions to the White House, which had not immediately commented.
That uncertainty is important. What is independently established is that Saudi Arabia has repeatedly sought greater U.S. military involvement as the Houthis have advanced, while Washington has so far resisted entering the Yemen fighting directly. Reuters reported earlier this month that Trump declined Saudi requests for U.S. strikes while Washington offered intelligence-sharing and targeting assistance, reflecting an effort to support Riyadh without opening another direct American combat front.
Trump also spoke on Sunday with Rashad al-Alimi, president of Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government. Four people familiar with the conversation told Reuters that Alimi requested U.S. military support, while two sources said Trump made no direct commitment to provide it. Neither the White House nor Yemen’s information minister immediately commented on the details of the call.
The U.S. position is particularly significant because Washington has fought the Houthis directly before. American forces conducted an intensive bombing campaign against Houthi targets for roughly two months in early 2025 before Trump announced a ceasefire with the movement. The United States has remained outside the latest Saudi-Houthi confrontation, and Trump has publicly said Washington has been in contact with the Houthis and that they have indicated they will not target U.S. shipping.
Those contacts have continued even as the battlefield has expanded. U.S. officials met Houthi representatives in Oman earlier this month, five sources told Reuters, underscoring Washington’s attempt to preserve a channel to the movement while Saudi Arabia presses for stronger military support. The simultaneous diplomacy and military pressure point to a difficult U.S. calculation: protecting navigation and a major Gulf ally without being drawn deeper into a regional conflict already involving Iran.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has carried out hundreds of strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen’s highlands in recent days, according to the Houthis. Fighting has intensified across Taiz and other areas, while government-aligned forces have attempted to halt Houthi advances and protect routes leading toward Aden. The claims of individual strikes and battlefield losses remain difficult to verify independently because access to many front-line areas is restricted.
The human cost is already substantial. The United Nations says nearly 700 people have been killed and thousands injured in the latest escalation, while close to 130,000 Yemenis have been displaced inside the country. More than 3,000 people have crossed the Red Sea by boat toward Africa, adding another displacement crisis to a country that has endured more than a decade of conflict and severe humanitarian pressure.
The consequences extend far beyond Yemen because the territorial struggle is increasingly centred on Bab al-Mandab, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Houthi control around the strait threatens one of the world's most important maritime corridors and puts additional pressure on energy markets already disrupted by the wider U.S.-Iran conflict. The Houthis' recent coastal gains have become particularly important for Saudi Arabia because the Red Sea had offered Riyadh an alternative export route when shipping through the Strait of Hormuz became more dangerous.
Saudi oil movements show how rapidly that strategic equation has changed. Reuters reported that Saudi exports moving through Hormuz reached about 2.9 million barrels per day in recent days, compared with roughly 700,000 barrels per day in August, compensating for the halt in Saudi Red Sea loadings. Tankers willing to make wartime voyages through Hormuz have charged exceptionally high fees before transferring crude to other vessels in the Indian Ocean for onward shipment.
That makes the Houthi drive into the highlands more consequential than another exchange of territory in Yemen’s long civil war. If the movement can secure mountain approaches behind its newly acquired coastal positions, it could make it harder for Saudi-backed forces to reverse the Red Sea gains and strengthen Houthi leverage around Bab al-Mandab. It does not, however, mean the Houthis have uncontested control of all shipping through the strait or that commercial navigation has completely stopped; the military situation remains fluid and government-aligned forces continue to fight.
The advance also presents Trump with a strategic choice at a time when his administration is trying to avoid another expansion of direct U.S. military operations. Saudi Arabia is seeking help against an armed movement supported by Iran, while Washington is already heavily committed to the wider confrontation with Tehran. Directly striking the Houthis could strengthen Saudi defences and pressure the movement, but it could also reopen a U.S.-Houthi war that Trump ended last year and widen an already volatile regional conflict.
For now, the evidence points to Washington maintaining that distinction. The United States is providing support to regional partners and remains focused on freedom of navigation, but Trump has not publicly committed American forces to Saudi Arabia’s campaign against the Houthis. Even the report that U.S. aircraft were being prepared for strikes before Trump stopped the operation remains unconfirmed by the White House or Pentagon and should therefore be treated as a reported development rather than an established U.S. military action.
On the ground, however, the Houthis are not waiting for Washington’s decision. Their push into the Kahboub Mountains indicates an effort to turn the dramatic coastal advance of recent weeks into defensible territorial control by securing the heights behind Bab al-Mandab. Whether Saudi and Yemeni government forces can prevent that consolidation could determine not only the next phase of Yemen’s war but also how much pressure the conflict places on one of the world’s most strategically important shipping corridors.