Desperate pleas for air support from Yemeni generals began arriving Thursday morning. The Iranian-backed Houthi advance into Yemen’s strategic port city of Mokha is in full swing, with backup support from key ally Saudi Arabia nowhere in sight.
“The Houthis did everything they had, attacking wave after wave of fighter jets, along with available ballistic missiles and weapons,” a senior Yemeni source in the military told CNN. The official said he had contacted U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured that the U.S. was “closely monitoring the situation and Saudi air support is coming.”
“But air support never came,” the source said. “And Moka has just collapsed.”
Hours later, on Friday, the Houthis captured Perim Island, another important coastal asset at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island split the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran effective control of another important shipping lane.
The Houthis’ rapid advance took an unusually long 36 hours in a conflict that has been mostly on ice for years. But the seeds for new fighting have been brewing for months amid the U.S.-Iranian conflict, as the Iranian government seeks to leverage oil prices and its impact on the global economy.
Yemen and the Red Sea now have the potential to become a true second front in the Iran war.
Iran’s effective control of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as its tightening of control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, threatens to push oil prices higher in the weeks before the US midterm elections in November.
The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Suez Canal, is less important to global energy markets than Hormuz, but it still moves essential goods around the world, including millions of barrels of oil every day. The strait has become increasingly important since the outbreak of the Iran war, as Saudi Arabia reroutes some exports through the waterway, bypassing Hormuz.
Amr al-Bid, head of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC), said: “[The Houthis]don’t need to use modern weapons to close Bab al-Mandeb. They just need to use artillery on cars.” The STC has fought both the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces in the past and wants to establish an independent state in the south.
“This is the power they have without using advanced weapons,” Arbido said in an interview with CNN. “And they will protect it.”
“Ghost” army roster and no backup support
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met twice with US President Donald Trump on Thursday and urged him to attack the Houthis, another source told CNN on Friday. The official said President Trump refused to intervene.
“The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests, including ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and solving regional security challenges,” the White House said in response to CNN’s questions about the call. “We are in ongoing dialogue with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen regarding regional stability.”
CNN has also reached out to the Saudi embassy in Washington for comment.
Moka’s rapid fall and lack of resistance led to condemnation and condemnation among America’s allies.
“This failure is not on the Yemeni side,” a regional official told CNN on Thursday. “This is a disaster in (Washington) DC and Riyadh.
Local sources told CNN this was a “total failure of political leadership” amid intense fighting and slow decision-making in Riyadh.
“Although there were minute-by-minute updates, there was not a single airstrike (by Saudi-backed forces) all day yesterday,” the regional official added. “It’s Saudi-American shit on an epic scale.”
Not everyone agrees. Mohamed Al-Basha, who has advised the U.S. government and the private sector on risks emanating from the Arabian Peninsula, says Yemeni leaders are also to blame for internal divisions that have put their country’s defenses at risk.
“This goes back to deeper issues in the anti-Houthi coalition,” a DC-based adviser told CNN. “There is no political unity.”
“I think everyone was aware of the Houthis’ expansion into the West Coast. The writing on the wall was very clear,” he added. “There is no unified command and control in Yemen.”
Houthi fighters arrived in Mokha on Thursday and found a Yemeni battalion in a state of severe depletion. The roster was filled with “ghost names” who received paychecks, and the military’s actual strength was only about 20% of what was on paper, a Western official familiar with the operation told CNN.
The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that the United Arab Emirates, once part of Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition, withdrew its remaining troops from the country in January after Saudi Arabia asked them to leave amid the conflict. And Saudi Arabia did not backfill those barracks or bases.
“It makes no sense. I mean, you have your main backers in the ground forces… They have actually been doing all this work for 10 years and then all of a sudden you ask them to leave, and you can’t fill that vacuum,” added Arbid of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council. “It’s just a lack of strategy and poor management.”
“We have repeatedly warned CENTCOM over the past few days, including yesterday, that the situation has become critical,” a senior Yemeni official told CNN on Friday. CNN has reached out to CENTCOM for a response.
CENTCOM Director Admiral Brad Cooper was in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for coordination meetings, two sources said. CENTCOM declined to comment, citing operational security reasons.
Officials told CNN that the Saudi military had been on high alert for three weeks, but key personnel from the Air Force Command had not been deployed. Western sources familiar with the battle said Saudi Arabia did not deploy the military personnel needed to control and direct the fighter jets in the event of a major attack.
“Saudi Arabia threw Yemenis under the bus,” a Western source told CNN on Thursday.
CNN has reached out to the Saudi Ministry of Information for comment on these allegations.
The failure to defend Moka and Perim is even more confusing in light of recent news reported exclusively by CNN, according to five people familiar with the operation. More than 100 U.S. military advisers were sent to Saudi Arabia to provide intelligence and targeting support for Saudi military operations.
The U.S. military is operating as part of the newly established Joint Forces Command in recent weeks, one of the sources told U.S. officials, amid signs that Iran is ramping up its own efforts to support the Houthi offensive. The official estimated the total number of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia to be about 200.
Capturing assets in the Red Sea would give the Houthis far greater maneuverability and influence, as it would open new areas for Iranian-backed rebels to launch boats and attack.
Asked what happens next, risk analyst Albasha told CNN: “I think the Houthis will move east. We’re seeing today through satellites and OSINT (open source intelligence) photography…the Houthis mobilizing.”
An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader on Friday described the Houthi advance on Yemen’s west coast as a “clear victory” and wrote in a post on X that “the American people and our allies in Washington are paying the price for the economic crisis and Trump’s ambitions.”
CNN’s Sara El Shirghany, Mostafa Salem, Nadine Ebrahim, Jennifer Hansler, Zachary Cohen, Katie Beau Lillis and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
