Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces say they seized key positions on the Bab el-Mandeb strait from the Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday, fighting to reverse the group’s advances of the month before, [Reuters reported](<https://www.reuters.com/world/yemeni-government-forces-seize-district-by-bab-el-mandeb-military-sources-say-2026-10-05/>), citing military and government sources. [Al Jazeera](<https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/6/yemen-war-whats-the-latest-on-the-battlefield>) likewise reports claims of several strategic positions taken near the strait as fighting intensifies along the western coast. The claims are striking — [one account](<https://en.sedaily.com/international/2026/10/05/yemeni-forces-retake-bab-el-mandeb-strait-from-houthis>) has the Saudi-backed forces reporting 1,122 strikes on Houthi positions while the Saudi-led coalition hit 324 targets — but they remain claims from the warring parties; the offensive has already reversed direction once in a month.
The Houthis answered on a second front. The group claimed attacks on airports, oil infrastructure and military sites inside Saudi Arabia, and [Euronews reported](<https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/06/yemen-government-forces-advance-on-bab-el-mandeb-in-offensive-against-houthis>) that they struck Riyadh’s international airport and oil facilities as the government offensive got under way. The same report said Pakistan and Turkey agreed to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia. [ABC News](<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-06/yemeni-government-forces-say-bab-el-mandeb-strait-secured/107231438>) describes the government side as claiming the strait itself secured, part of a major offensive on the Red Sea coast.
At the other chokepoint, exports are rising with the attacks
About 1,000km northeast, the filing from the Strait of Hormuz runs the other way: attacks on ships are surging, and oil is moving anyway. Gulf oil flows excluding Iran recovered to more than 81 percent of pre-war levels in September, and crude exports from the wider Middle East exceeded pre-war levels on 14 days of the month, maritime intelligence firm Kpler reported, [per Al Jazeera](<https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/6/hormuz-ship-attacks-surge-are-increased-oil-exports-sustainable>). The seven-day moving average of crude exports from the region stood at 18.3 million barrels per day on September 30, [Kpler’s provisional data showed](<https://www.bairdmaritime.com/shipping/tankers/oil-flows-surge-from-persian-gulf-even-as-tanker-attacks-rattle-hormuz>). Provisional here means subject to revision; the direction of the series is not.
The resilience has a mechanism, and it is routing rather than calm seas. The September surge was driven by Saudi Arabia loading from both Red Sea and Gulf terminals, three weeks after a September 10 attack on its East-West pipeline, [NBC News reported Kpler as saying](<https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/hormuz-oil-exports-increase-ship-attacks-rcna601597>). A producer whose Gulf outlet is threatened pushes barrels west; the export number holds even as the strait it nominally depends on gets more dangerous.
That leaves two contested maritime corridors in one week of the same war system: Bab el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea, held or not held depending on whose claim is credited, and Hormuz, where ship attacks are rising while the tonne-miles keep clearing. The number to watch is whether the 18.3 million-barrel average survives the attack tempo that produced it — and whether Monday’s positions on the strait last longer than the ones lost in September.