Saudis and Houthis exchange strikes, Yemenis flee by boat as Middle East war spreads
<body><p>STORY: There's been a real transformation of the Houthis from where they were. This is now a force that has, drone and ballistic missile capabilities that allow it to play a global role. </p><p>:: Angus McDowell, Correspondent</p><p>It's able to more or less shut off Saudi oil exports to close off the Red Sea, which is one of the world's most important trade waterways.</p><p>And they're using this far more effective, technology in ways that it would have been hard to imagine them doing a decade ago.</p><p>:: How are the Houthis flexing their muscle?</p><p>What happened last week is that the Houthis made one really sudden advance on the Red Sea coast. It also allowed them to capture the last stretch of territory, around the Bab el-Mandeb straight.</p><p>They can fire, really very easily, with a whole range of different types of munitions, at passing shipping. </p><p>And that really has given them a big strategic win.</p><p>:: How did Iran help transform the Houthi fighters?</p><p>The relationship between Iran and the Houthis developed fairly gradually at first, but I think that they're now working fairly closely.</p><p>For a long time the Houthis were not regarded as being in the same category as Iran's other major regional allies, groups like the, Lebanon's Hezbollah and some of the Iraqi militias.</p><p>What we see now is a Houthi force that is very much influenced by Iran and also prepared to work</p><p>very closely with Iran in terms of the larger strategic picture in the Middle East.</p><p>:: How do Houthi gains bolster Iran?</p><p>So the wider context for all this is the U.S. war with Iran. And Iran had already, managed to largely block off the Strait of Hormuz, which is the world's most important waterway for energy. </p><p>But an awful lot of particularly Saudi Arabian oil was still getting out by pipeline across to its Red Sea ports and from there, down the Red Sea, through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and to Asian markets.</p><p>Now the Houthi actions, really are helping the Iranians to close off that route for Gulf energy, and by doing so that all of a sudden putting a huge amount more pressure on global energy markets.</p><p>And that is really helpful to Iran, in terms of its overall efforts to see out the American campaign and to survive this war.</p></body>
By Nayera Abdallah, Yomna Ehab and Hatem Maher
DUBAI/CAIRO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis exchanged fresh strikes across their border on Thursday and Yemenis took to boats in the Red Sea to escape fighting, as the spreading Middle East war created new threats to global oil supplies.
Houthi-controlled television reported Saudi airstrikes in Hajjah province close to the Saudi border near the Red Sea coast, and the vicinity of Taiz further inland to the south.
Saudi Arabia's civil defence said a Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia had been killed by debris from a drone intercepted over the western city of Taif, the first death Riyadh has announced in repeated Houthi attacks since fighting escalated last week. It has previously said more than 80 people were wounded.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said a Togo-flagged oil tanker caught fire after being hit while attempting what it called an 'illegal passage' through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported. The tanker came to a halt after the fire, the Guards Navy said.
The spread of the war to Yemen and Saudi Arabia has raised new concerns about oil supplies by jeopardising the main alternative Red Sea route for Gulf exports while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained.
US President Donald Trump has rebuffed pleas from the Saudis for military support to fight the Houthis, who agreed a ceasefire with the United States last year after Washington bombed the group for two months.
The president faces the prospect of political losses for his Republican Party in November's midterm elections, partly because of higher energy prices since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February.
Trump said on Thursday he is approaching a critical juncture over whether to restart massive attacks on Iran.
"I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me," Trump said in an interview with Axios.
Trump has in the past threatened major new attacks that have not materialized.
Global crude prices eased slightly on Thursday but remain well above $100 a barrel after reaching their highest levels since May. The average US retail diesel price hit a record high on Thursday, just shy of $6.40 a gallon.
The United States and Iran have held no negotiations to end the war since an interim agreement reached in June collapsed within weeks. But the war will come up for discussion at the United Nations General Assembly next week, and an Iranian delegation will be able to attend, according to the US State Department.
The fighting has driven Yemeni civilians to flee across the Bab el-Mandeb — Arabic for "Gate of Tears" — the narrow strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.
In Djibouti on the African shore of the Red Sea, Wahida Omer, 50, reached land after crossing on a small boat from Yemen when her village of Dhubab came under attack as the Houthis swept into the area. Her husband had been left behind and she had no idea if he was alive, dead or captured by the Houthis.
"The sea was frightening, difficult," she said in an interview filmed by the International Organization for Migration. Those on the boat were "crying the whole way, and we arrived still crying" with nothing to eat.
The IOM says more than 100,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the latest fighting, mostly within Yemen.
The Houthis, who have seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coast since last week in a lightning advance, say the Saudi Air Force has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in recent days. On Wednesday, the Houthis said they had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet.
"We want the Saudis to cease their blockade and occupation of our country, and to stop their aggression against us. This is our demand!" Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech, seated with a traditional dagger in his belt. Slogans on the wall behind him read: "Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory for Islam."
The US Navy is trying to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet to the Gulf along Iran's coast, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the war, and is also imposing a blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran says the strait is closed and will remain shut until Washington lifts the blockade. It is seeking an agreement with neighbouring Gulf states that would let it collect fees from ships passing through the strait.
(Reporting by Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter Graff and David Morgan; Editing by Sanjeev MiglaniEditing by Alexandra Hudson and Andrew Heavens)
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