Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized control of Yemen’s key port city of Mokha, strengthening their position near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and raising concerns over international shipping and global energy supplies. The reported takeover comes amid a sharp escalation in regional tensions between Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels say Saudi Arabia has carried out more than 32 airstrikes on their positions in Yemen, following large-scale Houthi attacks that wounded 73 civilians, including women and children, in several Saudi cities.
At least 14 people were killed and 11 others injured in an explosion at a temporary weapons and explosives storage facility near Sarmada in Syria’s Idlib province. Authorities warned that the death toll could rise as rescue teams search the rubble for survivors.
Iran and the United States have sharply escalated military confrontation across the Middle East, with the IRGC claiming attacks on U.S. vessels and oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington says it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. Iran also launched ballistic missile attacks toward a U.S.-used base in Jordan.
Rescue teams recovered four more bodies from a Houthi-run prison destroyed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen’s northern Jawf province, raising the death toll to 23, while seven people remain missing. The coalition also resumed airstrikes on Houthi military targets in Jawf and Marib.
The US says its forces destroyed five Iranian crude-oil tankers after the IRGC twice targeted a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles, while Iran claimed a retaliatory missile strike on a US base in Jordan.
Israel has announced retaliatory measures against Britain, including plans to close the British consulate in Jerusalem, end British training for Palestinian security forces and bar 12 British lawmakers and other nationals, following UK restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Britain has announced a ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with restrictions on certain settlement-linked services, in a move aimed at curbing settlement expansion and preserving the prospects of a two-state solution.
The US Treasury Department has sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines and several other entities under its “Operation Economic Outcast,” targeting companies accused of supporting Mahan Air and helping Iran maintain access to international financial networks.
