Houthis claim six operations in Saudi Arabia and target Aden as Gulf states warn of threats to Bab el-Mandeb and Hormuz

Houthi movement spokesman Yahya Saree announced that the group had carried out six military operations in Saudi Arabia⁶. The Saudi-led coalition said on Friday that it had intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by the Houthis near Mecca⁴. The coalition also reported a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia⁵.

In Yemen itself, the Houthis targeted the presidential palace in Aden⁷. Yemeni authorities said the Houthi rebels struck Aden without causing any casualties¹. The strikes came on the same day that Iran said four tankers struck mines and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, and as Qatari mediators returned to Tehran¹.

Why it matters to investors

Saudi Arabia condemned the Houthi attacks and called for security in both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb². The Saudi government said that securing navigation in the Red Sea and in the straits of Bab el-Mandeb and Hormuz is a shared regional and international responsibility². Saudi Arabia and Yemen also jointly warned of an Iran-backed Houthi threat to shipping through both waterways³.

Citing findings by the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen, one official said the Houthis had received support from Iran, Iraqi armed groups and Hezbollah³. Those are claims made by the two governments and the official, and the sources in this report do not include a response from the Houthis or from Iran to them^3,6.

The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council said that disrupting navigation in the straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb poses a threat to global economic interests, and that the international community must restore normal navigation⁸. The council’s warning that threats in the two straits pose a direct risk to global economic interests was delivered during discussions connected to the 22nd Regional Security Summit in Manama⁹.

One account went further, saying the Houthis were attacking and occupying the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic shipping route that carries oil supplies from Saudi Arabia¹⁰. The other sources here describe attacks, interceptions and warnings, but none of them reports that the strait has been occupied^2,3,8. The same account linked rising tension in the Houthi-Saudi conflict to concerns about limited fuel supplies¹⁰.

What to watch

Gulf governments are now presenting the Red Sea route and the Strait of Hormuz as a single risk to navigation rather than two separate problems^2,8. The Houthi announcement of six operations and the coalition’s reports of a drone and a missile set out how the two sides describe the fighting, and neither account has been independently confirmed in these sources^4,5,6.

Further coalition statements on interceptions, any Houthi claims of new operations against Saudi territory, and the outcome of the Qatari mediation with Tehran are the next markers for shipping risk across both chokepoints^1,4,6.