On September 11, Iran-backed Houthi forces seized Perim Island at the heart of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, completing a month-long campaign that claimed more than 1,500 lives and handed them a chokepoint nations have fought over for centuries. The capture places a non-state armed group astride one of the arteries of global commerce — yet also within striking distance of overwhelming American military power. Washington has chosen restraint for now, even as the question of who ultimately holds this volcanic rock remains very much unsettled.
Houthis' Perim Island capture creates strategic vulnerability in Red Sea chokepoint
Houthi offensive killed more than 1,500 soldiers and forced Yemen's government to acknowledge military defeat.