23JUL

Yemeni troops push on Houthi-held Dhubab

2 min read

19:27UTC

Yemen's government forces attacked Dhubab, above Bab al-Mandeb, on 5 October with heavy Saudi-led air cover, a day after opening a wider offensive.

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Key takeaway

Saudi-backed Yemeni forces are fighting to retake the Houthi-held coast above Bab al-Mandeb.

Yemen's government forces opened an offensive on Houthi-held territory on 4 October, Reuters reported⁠¹. The next day they attacked Dhubab district with heavy air support from the Saudi-led coalition. Dhubab overlooks Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow strait at the Red Sea's southern mouth.

The Giants Brigades, a pro-government Yemeni force, said their first units reached Dhubab that day. Houthi-aligned media denied any advance, and no independent account settles where the front line sits. The Houthis had taken that coast, including Mayun island in the strait, in September.

Saudi aircraft have bombed Yemen since the coalition intervened against the Houthis in 2015. This month's ground push aims to retake the coast the Houthis seized in September. The offensive opened two days before Houthi missiles began hitting Saudi airports. On 13 October the coalition told civilians to leave before it bombed an oil site in Houthi-held Sanaa.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Yemen has two rival authorities. The Houthis run the north and the capital, Sanaa; an internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, holds much of the south. Dhubab is a coastal district next to Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow strait between Yemen and Djibouti. Most ships going between Europe and Asia via the Suez Canal pass through it. The Giants Brigades are a pro-government Yemeni force, largely recruited in the south. Their advance answers the Houthis' own September offensive on the coast.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Bab al-Mandeb is the Red Sea's southern gate, and whoever holds the high ground at Dhubab can watch or fire on the shipping lane. That geography makes the district a recurring target in every phase of Yemen's war.

The September collapse of the multi-year truce removed the political cover that had kept front lines static, AFP reports. Once the Houthis seized the whole coast, Riyadh and its Yemeni allies faced a choice between accepting Houthi control of the strait and contesting it on the ground.

What could happen next?

Consequence
A coalition foothold at Dhubab would put the Houthis' control of the strait's eastern shore in doubt for the first time since September.
Risk
Each coalition gain on the coast is likely to draw further Houthi strikes on Saudi civilian infrastructure.

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United Kingdom

United Kingdom×2

Primary parallel: Operation Golden Spear, launched in January 2017 by UAE-backed forces, took Dhubab and then Mokha within weeks. The Houthis lost the Bab al-Mandeb shore but kept Hodeidah port and the capital.

Counter-parallel: The June 2018 push on Hodeidah stalled at the city's edge under international pressure over famine risk. It ended in the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement of December 2018, which froze the front rather than settling it.

The Red Sea route already carries far less traffic than before the Houthi shipping attacks began in late 2023. A ground war at Bab al-Mandeb adds a land-based threat to the maritime one, which keeps shippers routing round the Cape of Good Hope and war-risk premiums high.

Fuel sales are one of the Houthis' main domestic income streams, and the coalition's strike hit an oil site in Sanaa.

Consensus view: Three military sources and one government source told Reuters that heavy coalition air cover carried government forces into large parts of Dhubab {{SRC:2}}. The aim is to retake the shore the Houthis seized in September.

Counter-view: Houthi-aligned media deny any advance, and the movement's record since 2015 is of absorbing coastal losses while holding the highlands and Sanaa. On that reading Dhubab changes the map at the strait but not the war's centre of gravity.

Key tension: Whether the coalition can hold a coastal strip under Houthi missile fire, or whether the offensive mainly invites more strikes on Saudi cities.

Sources:The Times of Israel·The Times of Israel·The Times of Israel

Mentions:Yemen →Giants Brigades →Houthis →Dhubab →Saudi Arabia →Bab al-Mandeb →Sanaa →Red Sea →Reuters →Suez Canal →Djibouti →Mokha →Mayun →Hodeidah →Cape of Good Hope →

First Reported In

Update #181 · Houthi missiles kill 13 at Riyadh's airport

The Times of Israel· 17 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Houthis take all of Yemen's Red Sea coast

Government forces attacked Dhubab on the Bab al-Mandeb coast the Houthis had taken in September.

Occurred 12 Sept 2026

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This Event

Yemeni troops push on Houthi-held Dhubab

Government troops backed by Saudi air power are contesting the coast that gives the Houthis their grip on Bab al-Mandeb.

Led to

Houthi missiles hit recruits in Shabwa

Houthi missiles hit government recruits in Shabwa while government forces fight at Dhubab.

Occurred 19 Oct 2026

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Different Perspectives

Wang Yi

China's foreign minister and Djibouti's issued a joint communique on 21 October saying the war should not reach the Horn of Africa and stressing free navigation through Bab al-Mandeb. The text names neither Iran nor the Houthis, and Djibouti hosts China's only overseas military base, opposite the Yemeni coast.

Ministry of External Affairs

India's foreign ministry called the attacks on Saudi civilian and energy sites "unacceptable" on 22 October and said they must stop at once. An Indian died at Dammam, Indians were injured there and at Shaybah, and about 4,000 Umrah pilgrims remain stranded by one MP's count.

Iraq

Iraq closed the al-Sheeb crossing with Iran to travellers and trucks from 21 October and said other crossings would close gradually. Unlike September's closure, which ended on a staged timetable, this one has none, and Iran's interior ministry said it received no notice.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Egypt's president said on 21 October that Cairo's support would "defend Saudi territory, and does not include an attack on Yemen". Araghchi warned that Egyptian involvement would further complicate the situation, and Cairo's limit matches the one Ankara set on 8 October against attacking another state's soil.

UK Ministry of Defence

The MoD said on 20 October that RAF Typhoons over Saudi Arabia will not strike the Houthis, but extended tanker support to Saudi operations including against Houthi targets in Yemen. The tanker line sets no limit on strikes, so British aircraft may now refuel Saudi jets on bombing runs.

Turkey

Ankara sent the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement to parliament around 20 October, and its published text treats an attack on one party as an attack on all. Article 16 brings it into force only on the last ratification, so the 5 October invocation in Riyadh could not yet bind Turkey.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.