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The second act of the Middle East war is unfolding around the Bab al-Mandab Strait after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis seized control of the strategic waterway, while Yemeni army rosters were found to be riddled with “ghost names,” leaving forces in the key Red Sea port of Mocha largely unprepared to repel the group’s takeover.
More than 2,000 people have landed in Djibouti this week after fleeing the uptick in fighting between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi fighters and Saudi-backed government, the United Nations said on Sept. 14.
Tens of thousands have taken flight in the wake of a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing the remainder of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and several strategic islands, cementing their hold on the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Yemeni battalions stationed in Mokha, which the Houthis captured on Sept. 10, were far weaker than official rosters suggested, according to a CNN report published on Sept. 12.
A Western source familiar with anti-Houthi operations told CNN that the names of nonexistent soldiers had been kept on the army’s payroll, making the force appear considerably larger than it actually was.
In reality, the source said, the Yemeni force amounted to only around 20 percent of its nominal strength.
The revelations shed new light on the apparent lack of resistance to the Houthi advance, which came as the group mounted a week-long offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
The fall of Mokha has triggered a dispute over who was responsible for the failure to stop the Houthi advance, with blame falling on Yemeni leaders as well as their Saudi and U.S. backers.
A regional source described the collapse as a major Saudi-American failure, citing what the source characterized as delayed decision-making in Washington and Riyadh.
“The failure this time is not with the Yemenis,” the source told CNN, claiming that Saudi-backed forces received minute-by-minute updates on the unfolding offensive but that “there was not one airstrike throughout the day.”
Another source said the Saudi military had been placed on high alert weeks earlier over the possibility of a Houthi advance but failed to make adequate preparations. Key personnel responsible for directing combat aircraft were allegedly not deployed.
“The Saudis threw the Yemenis under the bus,” the source said.
The capture of Mokha and the wider Houthi advance have given the group greater leverage over one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints. Bab al-Mandab has become particularly significant for Saudi Arabia after Iran largely disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz at the outset of the Middle East war.
The Houthis have also declared their own maritime blockade targeting Saudi ports on the Red Sea, further raising the stakes around the waterway.
