By Mohammed Ghobari, Timour Azhari and Jana Choukeir
RIYADH/DUBAI, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Houthi fighters pushed to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that President Donald Trump had called off US strikes on the group at the last minute.
A lightning advance by the Iran-backed group this month has extended the wider Middle East conflict to a new theatre and further threatened global energy supplies. Washington has so far rebuffed repeated pleas from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to join the fight in Yemen.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had prepared to launch airstrikes on Sunday against the Houthis after fresh pleas from the Saudi crown prince. But the newspaper said Trump called off the airstrikes at the last minute, even as troops were loading bombs onto aircraft.
Reuters could not immediately verify the Times’ report. The US military’s Central Command referred questions to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Rashid al-Alimi, the Riyadh-based president of Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, asked Trump by phone on Sunday for US military help, four sources told Reuters. Two of the sources, one Yemeni and one Western, said Trump made no direct pledge of support during the call.
Riyadh was apparently struck on Saturday for the first time since the escalation began, with explosions heard and smoke visible near the airport. The Houthis said they had fired missiles at the Saudi capital; the Saudis have not commented.
FIGHTING IN HIGHLANDS
The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital since 2014, seized the country’s Red Sea coast this month in an advance that routed forces of the Saudi-backed government.
Saudi Arabia has launched hundreds of strikes in recent days on the fighters’ positions in the highlands, the Houthis say.
According to the United Nations, nearly 700 people have been killed and thousands injured in the flare-up in fighting. Nearly 130,000 Yemenis have fled homes within Yemen, and more than 3,000 have fled by boat across the Red Sea to Africa.
Five Yemeni military sources told Reuters the Houthis were now seeking to seize strategic heights, known as the Kahboub Mountains, in two provinces, Taiz and Lahij, which separate the Red Sea coast from the government-held south.
Fighting has centred on the outskirts of the remote mountain Al-Wazi’iyah district in Taiz province, and Ras al-Ara along the Indian Ocean coast between the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the Red Sea’s mouth and the government’s base in Aden, the sources said.
“The government forces appear to remain largely in a defensive posture following the loss of the Bab el-Mandeb area, while the Houthis are seeking to maintain the momentum of their advance, despite being exposed to intensive air strikes,” said Mohammed Al-Qadhi, a veteran Yemeni journalist now working as a political analyst.
“These mountains could become critical to determining whether the Houthis succeed in consolidating their recent territorial gains or whether government forces will be able to retain the positions necessary to mount a counteroffensive.”
SAUDI OIL EXPORTS
The surge in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis creates a dilemma for Trump, under pressure to help Saudi allies but anxious not to further expand the deeply unpopular war he launched as “Operation Epic Fury” in February against Iran.
The United States bombed the Houthis for two months in early 2025, but Trump called off those strikes after reaching a ceasefire, and has kept out of the Yemen conflict since.
The Houthis’ Red Sea advance risks cutting off the main alternative route Saudi Arabia has used for oil exports that bypass disruption through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia has responded by increasing shipments through Hormuz, where a small number of tankers are increasingly shuttling back and forth to bring out oil, charging record fees of as much as a quarter of the cargo’s value to brave the wartime risk. They then transfer the oil to other ships in the Indian Ocean, bound for customers in Asia or elsewhere.
Traders say Saudi Arabia has sold 60 million barrels of oil both this month and next, to be loaded from off Oman on the far side of Hormuz. Satellite data shows Saudi exports through Hormuz reaching 2.9 million barrels per day in recent days, up from just 700,000 in August.
That has helped put a cap on the global price of crude, which has retreated closer to $100 a barrel after approaching $110 last week. But consumers and industries are still paying record prices for some refined fuels, with the US retail price of diesel hitting another all-time high on Monday.
In the latest reported attack in Hormuz, Britain’s UKMTO maritime security agency said a ship sailing into the strait had been hit with a projectile, causing minor injuries to crew. It also said it had learned of an earlier strike on a gas tanker.
Diplomacy in the wider conflict has largely been stalled since a June interim agreement between the United States and Iran collapsed within weeks. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is due to fly on Tuesday to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Timour Azhari in Riyadh, Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter Graff; Editing by Jon Boyle and Andrew Heavens)
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