Yemen fighting and shipping Sina reports from Mukalla

Sep 2026

Tagesschau describes renewed Yemen fighting, Houthi territorial gains, deaths and injuries, airstrikes in Sana'a and fighting over Taiz. Reporting from Mukalla, Ramin Sina says extremely heavy fighting took place that day on several fronts. Taiz residents are reportedly trapped by several conflict parties, including Houthis and government forces; Saudi-supported government airstrikes repeatedly also kill civilians. After a week in Yemen, Sina finds people exhausted by twelve years of fighting and sees no political solution close at hand. In the second answer he says Bab al-Mandab is closed to Saudi and Saudi-bound ships, while qualifying that neither it nor Hormuz has been completely sealed for several weeks. Small vessels and shadow fleets move oil with GPS disabled despite attack risks, apparently with U.S. escorts. He calls this a temporary, unsustainable workaround returning more oil to the market.

IRINN says 'Yemen' has announced that Saudi ships will not be allowed through Bab el-Mandeb in response to a Saudi blockade. It also cites a Wall Street Journal account of escalating attacks on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea that constrain the alternative oil route. The brief names no individual vessel or specific maritime attack and does not establish universal enforcement of the announced restriction. Kan identifies the announced Saudi shipping blockade as a Houthi response to the Saudi strike at Sana'a airport and describes their coastal offensive as strengthening pressure on Bab el-Mandeb. It discusses the combined threat with Hormuz but supplies no independently verified account that all passage has stopped. IRINN's September 26 opening identifies Hezam al-Asad as the source of a renewed statement excluding Saudi ships, alongside Israeli ships, from passage. This remains a declared restriction; the brief names no intercepted vessel and does not verify universal enforcement. Tagesschau says on September 28 that the Houthis have blocked Bab al-Mandab to Saudi ships since mid-September. This supplies an approximate onset within September, rather than a precise day. The brief statement names no intercepted vessel and does not independently demonstrate that every Saudi ship has been prevented from passing. On October 3, Ramin Sina tells Tagesschau from Mukalla that Bab al-Mandab is closed to Saudi ships and ships bound for Saudi ports. He qualifies wider closure claims: neither Bab al-Mandab nor Hormuz has been completely sealed for several weeks, as small vessels and shadow fleets move oil with GPS disabled despite attack risks. U.S. escorts are described as apparent, not confirmed. He calls the workaround temporary and unsustainable but says it is returning more oil to the world market. This does not establish universal Saudi-ban enforcement or a negotiated general reopening.