Along the western coast of Yemen, where ancient trade winds once guided merchant ships between continents, government forces and Houthi rebels clashed Thursday in fighting that killed at least 24 combatants — a toll that speaks not only to a decade of civil war, but to the mounting global stakes of who commands the narrow waters of Bab al-Mandab. Since abandoning a fragile truce in July, the Houthis have pressed southward with purpose, their ambitions shaped less by ideology alone than by the extraordinary leverage that geography now confers: with the Strait of Hormuz closed, the world's oil m
13 Yemeni soldiers killed as Houthis push toward strategic Bab al-Mandab strait
At least 24 soldiers and fighters killed in clashes, including two government officers among the 13 Yemeni military casualties.