File image.
Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) released footage on September 12 documenting their latest offensive along the country’s western coast, including destroyed and abandoned military vehicles, captured equipment, and fighters moving through rugged terrain as the group consolidates gains toward the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The footage, released through Houthi Military Media, shows a series of battlefield positions after fighting. Several vehicles are also shown damaged or burned, while other scenes show Houthi fighters inspecting military equipment and moving through mountainous and coastal terrain.
One scene shows fighters examining what appears to be a large communications or electronic system mounted on a vehicle. The material also includes graphic images of dead Yemeni government fighters lying beside military vehicles.
Houthi media described the footage as an initial look at “Operation Allah is Stronger in Might and Stronger in Inflicting Punishment.” The operation had driven Saudi-backed forces from positions in several districts of Taiz and Hodeidah provinces.
The release comes after several days of rapid Houthi advances along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, transforming the military balance around one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
The Houthis captured the strategic port city of Mocha earlier this week and subsequently moved south toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, capturing the town of Dhubab and the island of Perim, also known as Mayyun, which sits in the middle of the strait.
The group said its offensive had expelled Saudi-backed forces from six districts covering about 5,400 square kilometers and targeted seven military brigades.
The significance of the advance goes beyond the territory captured. Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and provides the maritime approach to the Suez Canal.
Control of Yemen’s side of the strait gives the Houthis a position overlooking a major international shipping route at a time when commercial traffic is already being disrupted by the wider regional conflict.
The offensive has also exposed divisions among forces fighting the Houthis. Analysts have described the anti-Houthi camp as fragmented, with Saudi- and Emirati-backed factions pursuing different priorities and maintaining separate command structures. That fragmentation has complicated efforts to organize a coordinated response to the Houthi advance.
For the Houthis, the new territorial gains represent their most significant expansion along the western coast in years. For their opponents, losing Mocha and positions approaching Bab el-Mandeb threatens to undo years of efforts to contain the group along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline.
The immediate question is whether the Houthis can hold the newly captured territory while resisting airstrikes and a possible counteroffensive, or whether the rapid advance will produce another prolonged front in Yemen’s already fragmented war.
For now, the footage released Saturday serves as a visual statement of the Houthis’ battlefield momentum. It shows the group portraying the offensive not simply as a raid or limited breakthrough, but as a coordinated operation that has pushed government-aligned forces out of a strategically important stretch of western Yemen.
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