The Levant Files

Yemen’s government is promising to recover the country. Its soldiers face a far less certain prospect. Saudi support could help them stop Houthi advances and regain territory, but taking the northern heartland—and keeping it—would demand much more than a powerful ally. By the Editorial Team of TLF 4 October 2026 | News and analysis. Battlefield claims remain subject to independent verification. 1. What Has Changed in the Past Few Hours? Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced on Sunday that military operations would begin to restore government authority nationwide. The government’s published statement says preparations are complete and accuses the Houthis of exhausting the opportunities for de-escalation. Al-Alimi is making the case for war. Whether his forces can deliver the victory he promises remains an open question. The announcement comes alongside fresh strikes. According to the Associated Press , the Yemeni military claime...

The war has upended the Gulf’s old security assumptions, forcing states to reconsider their reliance on the US and future ties with Iran. By Giorgio Cafiero · 28 September 2026 The US-Israeli war on Iran and its chaotic spillover effects across the Middle East and beyond have forced the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members to come to terms with new realities. Calculations about the Gulf’s security architecture are being reassessed, and Gulf states have been seriously questioning longstanding assumptions about the United States’ commitment to their security in the face of regional threats, chiefly from Iran, which retaliated against US and Israeli attacks by firing missiles and drones at the GCC states since the outset of this conflict on 28 February. Looking ahead, what will emerge from this conflict is unclear. There will not be imminent reconciliation between Gulf Arab monarchies and Iran. Nor will the Gulf Arab monarchies make a straightforward move away from Washington. What appe...

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are preparing urgent talks among their military chiefs after another wave of Houthi attacks. For the first time, the Mecca defence pact appears to be moving beyond declarations of solidarity and into military planning. But there is an important line that has not yet been crossed: no joint operation has been announced. By the Editorial Team of TLF Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are preparing military consultations as the war in Yemen increasingly spills across the Saudi border. A defence pact signed in Mecca only last month is already facing its first serious test. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are arranging an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff to examine how the three countries could support the kingdom as attacks from Yemen intensify. That does not yet mean Turkish or Pakistani forces are heading into the conflict. But it does mean that an agreement which, until now, largely existed on paper is being brought into the room where mili...

  The US-Israeli war with Iran could spread into a far more dangerous regional confrontation if disrupted trade, soaring living costs and threatened infrastructure push Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia towards military intervention, an editorial in Iran’s Shargh newspaper warns. Its chilling proposition: countries could enter the conflict when remaining outside it becomes economically and politically unbearable. Writing in Shargh, political scientist Kioumars Ashtarian examines that danger in an editorial titled “On the Threshold of a Regional Crisis.” His central concern is how economic suffering beyond Iran’s borders could become a national-security threat to Iran itself. The source matters. Shargh is an established reformist daily, described by the Financial Times as a leading newspaper in that political current. Ashtarian, a University of Tehran academic, is therefore raising the alarm within Iran’s domestic policy debate. His argument offers a significant Iranian perspective...

Yemeni government forces are reinforcing positions in western Taiz as they attempt to contain Ansar Allah/Houthi advances, with fighting around strategic mountain positions underscoring the growing pressure on the internationally recognised government and its Saudi backers. Clashes are concentrated around Kahbub, a mountainous area near the approaches to Bab al-Mandeb. Control of the heights offers an advantage, allowing fighters to monitor movements and threaten routes through the contested terrain. The Giants Brigades have been deployed to strengthen government defences. Counterattacks have reportedly slowed Houthi progress and prevented deeper incursions on parts of the front, although the extent of territorial changes remains difficult to establish independently. Saudi aircraft have also been supporting efforts to contain the offensive in western Taiz. Houthi accounts said air raids struck telecommunications towers, while a report said one civilian was killed and another wounded...

  Saudi Arabia's air defense forces shot down a drone launched by Yemen's Ansar Allah/Houthi movement on the outskirts of Mecca on Tuesday evening, September 15, the first time in nearly a decade that an attack has been directed at Islam's holiest city. The interception, carried out at around 6:50 p.m. local time south of Mecca, triggered a rare security alert in the city — the first since 2017, when Saudi forces intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at the same area. Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki condemned the incident as "an attempt to frighten worshippers and harm civilians," calling the protection of the two holy mosques and the safety of pilgrims a "red line" for the kingdom. Additional alerts were briefly activated in nearby Taif and Jeddah before being lifted. The coalition pledged "necessary deterrent measures" against the Iran-backed group. The Houthis quickly rejected the accusation. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said...

Yemen's conflict escalated sharply over the past 12 hours, with the Iran-backed Houthi movement seizing additional Red Sea islands, Saudi airstrikes reportedly killing civilians in Taiz, and Brent crude climbing to a 16-week high on fears for global shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. A Houthi health ministry official said Saudi airstrikes in Taiz province killed three people, including two children, and wounded two others, though the Associated Press could not independently verify the claim or identify what was targeted, according to a report carried by  News4Jax . The same report said Houthi forces have now seized the strategic Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the Red Sea, extending their control of the corridor after recently capturing the port of Mokha and other islands nearby. The advance follows what  NBC News  described as a "rapid push" that has given the Houthis effective control of Yemen's Red Sea coastline and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the...

  Yemen’s rapidly escalating conflict entered a new phase on Monday, with government forces reporting gains around Taiz, the Houthis consolidating strategically important positions near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and cross-border missile and drone attacks increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia and regional energy security. In one of the most significant developments of the past 12 hours, forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government advanced in western Taiz after repelling a Houthi offensive. Al Jazeera reported that government forces had recaptured several positions, while fighting continued along fronts connecting Taiz with Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The fighting comes amid a significant Houthi expansion along the coastline. The Associated Press reported that Houthi forces had captured the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the southern Red Sea, following their earlier seizure of Mokha and Mayun, also known as Perim Island. The territorial gains stre...

  Iraq has been thrust deeper into the region’s rapidly expanding confrontation after drones reportedly launched from its territory struck Saudi oil infrastructure, prompting Baghdad to dismiss senior security officials, tighten controls along its border with Iran and open an investigation into the attack. According to Shafaq News, the Iraqi government introduced a series of emergency security measures following indications that drones targeting Saudi Arabia originated from a location in Iraq’s southern Maysan province. The measures included the dismissal of the Maysan Operations Commander, the removal and investigation of provincial security chiefs and the establishment of an urgent investigative committee. Saudi Arabia said the drones targeted the kingdom’s strategic East-West oil pipeline, with strikes reported in the Riyadh and Medina regions. The attack caused injuries and material damage and prompted authorities to temporarily halt operations on the pipeline as a pr...

The conflict around Yemen’s Red Sea coast intensified sharply on Sunday, with Ansar Allah/Houthi forces claiming missile and drone attacks on a Saudi military base as Riyadh faces a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints. The latest escalation follows the Houthis’ capture of Mokha and Mayun, or Perim, Island, which sits directly in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The advances have significantly strengthened the Iran-aligned movement’s position around the southern entrance to the Red Sea and raised concerns that disruption already affecting the Strait of Hormuz could spread to a second critical global energy and commercial route. Early Sunday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones against the Sharurah military base in southern Saudi Arabia’s Najran province. He claimed that weapons depots and command-and-control faciliti...

  Iraqi security forces have launched a large-scale search-and-pursuit operation across the southern province of Maysan to track down those responsible for drone attacks on oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia, a security source told Shafaq News on Saturday. According to the source, who spoke to Shafaq News , the operation could be reinforced by the elite Counter-Terrorism Service as forces sweep the province for suspects. The manhunt began only hours after Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ali Falih al-Zaidi ordered an investigation into the Maysan Operations Command — the regional military command responsible for the province — and removed its commander from his post. Shafaq News ' source said al-Zaidi acted after authorities concluded the attacks had been launched from a site inside Maysan. Saudi Arabia had announced that its East–West pipeline, which carries crude across the kingdom toward its Red Sea coast, was struck by several drones launched from Iraq...

  Iran-aligned Houthi forces have swept to control of Yemen's Red Sea coastline in their most dramatic territorial advance in years, seizing the strategic port of Mokha and the island of Mayun (Perim) at the mouth of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, officials on both sides confirmed Friday. The rapid advance — which saw Saudi-backed government forces retreat from Mokha, just 50 miles from the strait — opens a dangerous new front in the widening Iran war and threatens one of the world's most critical oil shipping lanes. A senior military official with Yemen's internationally recognized government said the army was "stunned" that Saudi air power did not intervene, blaming poor coordination between government troops and allied militias. The Houthis declared that "maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels," vowing "escalation for escalation." Yemen's National Defense Council condemned the offensive and appealed for interna...

The fall of Perim Island is more than a battlefield victory — it is a statement of arrival. Ansarallah has demonstrated capabilities rarely seen outside modern states: coordinated amphibious landings, rocket-supported island assaults, and the ability to hold a maritime chokepoint while fighting on multiple fronts. In operational reach, Iran's main regional ally has arguably surpassed Hezbollah and every Palestinian faction, evolving from an insurgency into a de facto military power with strategic depth. For Yemen's internationally recognized government, options are narrowing fast. Air power is the most obvious recourse, but a decade of Saudi-led bombing proved that airstrikes alone cannot dislodge the Houthis from terrain they know intimately. With ground forces depleted and demoralized after Mokha, Aden's leadership risks becoming a government in exile in all but name. Riyadh faces the same dilemma at higher stakes. Its oil lifeline now runs through water controlled by its...

Yemen's Ansarallah movement, better known as the Houthis, has captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, officials on both sides said Friday, capping a lightning offensive that has redrawn the map of Yemen's long civil war in a matter of days. The takeover of the tiny, barren volcanic outcrop, also known as Mayun, was confirmed by a senior military official in Yemen's internationally recognized government and by a Houthi official, both speaking anonymously. Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath also reported the island's fall, along with the coastal town of Murad overlooking the strait. The island capture followed the seizure Thursday of Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea, taken after rocket attacks and a boat-borne ground assault, a military source told AFP. Reuters reported Houthi forces had also reached the Hanish Islands, while Iranian state media claimed the fall of Dhubab, the last major Saudi-backed stronghold on Yemen's western coast. The ad...