Houthis Seize Yemen's Mokha Port Near Bab el-Mandeb as Hormuz Shipping Toll Mounts, Brent Nears $108

On Sep 10, Iran-backed Houthi forces captured the Red Sea port city of Mokha and nearby Zuqar Island after government forces withdrew to Dhubab, 46km south; a Houthi commander said Mokha "can effectively be considered a city that has completely fallen," and Yemen's government warned the group intends to impose its own toll system on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, modeled on Iran's approach at Hormuz -- two Iranian sources told The National that Tehran had instructed and funded the Houthi push while publicly denying control over the group. The advance immediately hit shipping: vessel crossings through Bab el-Mandeb fell from 30 on Wednesday to just 12 on Thursday, narrowing the Red Sea/Suez corridor that shippers have relied on to bypass the closed Strait of Hormuz and opening a second maritime chokepoint alongside it. The same day, UKMTO recorded a wave of disabling-fire strikes on commercial vessels across the northern Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, a vessel listing off Dubai's Port Rashid, and a cargo ship hit southeast of al-Faw, Iraq, with Reuters reporting a seafarer killed aboard the Gibraltar-flagged tanker Hercules Star -- what Reuters called the largest wave of tit-for-tat shipping attacks since the war began Feb 28. Combined with the new Red Sea front, Brent crude extended its climb toward a crisis-high near $108/bbl (from $100.29 intraday Sep 9) and US diesel topped $6/gallon for the first time.