Yemeni offensive secures Red Sea chokepoint, with Jon Elmer

You are watching and listening to the Electronic Intifada. I am John Elmer. This is the Resistance Report on day 1077 of Israel's genocide in Gaza, day 202 of Israel's uh and the US's war of of aggression against Iran. And I'm reporting this live on the afternoon of Thursday, September 17th. Today, we're going to take a look at events in Yemen. Again, we can look at these maps with US bases. We look on the left side of the map at the bottom, you see Yemen, you see the uh choke point of the Bab el-Mandeb into the Red Sea. Uh and then you see Saudi Arabia uh in between. The war between Yemen and Saudi this week escalated. Uh in early July, we covered the Saudi attacks on the Sana'a airport in the Yemeni capital that were enforcing Saudi enforcing a blockade um as part of the 12-year war that Saudi has waged against Yemen. At the time, Ansar Allah and the Yemeni armed forces said that they would meet blockade with block- blockade and escalation with escalation. And they did just that. Beginning in the first days of September, Ansar Allah and the Yemeni armed forces carried out a lightning offensive that captured six districts across two provinces and more than 5,000 square kilometers along the coastline of the Red Sea uh that you see there uh in this map that we're showing. You can even see, I'll show it better in uh maps that are coming, but you can see um the coastal plains in the in the mountain range uh along the Red Sea there. That is the area that they took. The offensive pushed down the west coast of Yemen along the Red Sea south of Hodeidah to the southern tip of Taiz, uh rolling back Saudi-backed forces and driving them inland. The offensive included the capture of the strategic uh and historic port city of Mocha uh and [snorts] several key islands in the in the Red Sea that we will look at more in depth shortly. But just while we have this map up, you can see if with Yemeni control over the Bab el Mandeb, the choke point between Djibouti and Yemen there, you see those two dots, those are the two the main base Camp Lemonnier is the largest US military base in Africa and it's just right there as well. So, you see up and around all of the bases. This is not all of the bases on this map. This is an AFP map. They've got a lot of the bases but not all of them but it's significant to note that the Yemeni control now along that entire coastline of Yemen right up to the American base in Djibouti that you keep your eyes on. They're still fighting in the southern southernmost tip, the southern giants are still trying to resist the Ansar Allah push but I don't think that will be going on for much longer but we will follow the story because it doesn't seem like this seems like this is just the beginning. Let's look at number two here because you can see that this has now made two choke points and we've talked about the Bab el Mandeb as a choke point a lot on this program. We've covered Ansar Allah and people in America called the Houthis. We've been covering them for three years now and their operations in the Red Sea but this version of the map where you can see just how it connects to the rest of the world up into Europe and the shipping channels and you can just see both the choke points, the Strait of Hormuz on the right and the Bab el Mandeb on the left there and you can also see how tight it is through that southern portion of the Bab el Mandeb. Ansar Allah and the and the Yemeni armed forces are now in a position to control passage through the Bab el Mandeb. So far, the Yemeni armed forces have said their target is only Saudi shipping and nothing else but the 200 km push down the Red Sea coast secures the Yemeni armed forces control over the entire western coastline. That in itself is not a game changer. They have had weapons capacity to reach deep into the Red Sea from inland and from their control of the north of Yemen, but this is this is significant strategic gains that are made and you're going to see that in coming up. But first I want to just say how the many armed forces described it. This is how they described the lightning offensive. The Yemeni armed forces launched a military operation on September 3rd. This was a large-scale operation with multiple fronts aimed at expelling Saudi forces from some districts on the western coast which are committing crimes against civilians and seeking to subject Yemeni territory to Saudi occupation and control. The operation was a success despite heavy air cover provided by the Saudi enemy to its forces. It failed to affect the operation. The operation achieved the following results: the expulsion of the Saudi enemy forces from six districts in Taiz and Hodeidah governorates with a total of 5,400 square kilometers taken. Yemeni armed forces affirm that maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi ships for which a ban has already been announced and we will continue to maintain the equation blockade for blockade, escalation for escalation. Let's take a look at this next map cuz it'll give you a better sense of the Yemeni coastline. And this is a bit of an older map, but the purple area there represents essentially the region that was rolled back from Saudi control. It would have previously been under UAE backed fighters, but UAE pulled back and Saudi took the reins along that coast and their fighters were driven out and they captured the strategic town of Mocha, as I said, which is has for 200 years been the was for 200 the world's only commercial source of coffee. So it is that Mocha. That is the Mocha. Let's take a look at number four here because we can see the satellite images again that show that coastline. Again, we they're wielding geography in this battle the same as the Iranians are in their territory. You can't just wield geography unless you have military acumen as well and both the Yemenis and the Iranians have demonstrated that and they share many of the same core weapons that we will see coming up on this program. The Obviously the Saudis panicked. They called the chief of Central Command the CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper to Riyadh. They They got Israeli intelligence involved. They want the US to join the war. Doesn't look like that's what is going to happen after the 52-day war that the Americans fought with Yemen. It doesn't seem like they have the stomach for going back because we remember that those aircraft losses, drone losses, near misses of fighter jets and then fighter jets being dumped into the sea by aircraft carriers evading Yemeni fire. All of that was a foreshadow for the losses that the Americans would experience in Iran. >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. There's already close to 200 US personnel embedded within the targeting cells of the Saudis and that has been the case going back to the beginning of this war and when the Saudis invaded in 2015 and the Americans applauded them for fighting their own war without needing the Americans but they staffed they use all American weapons and they staff their their targeting cells with American soldiers deciding who to bomb. Um The force that was driven out the National Security Force led by Tarek Saleh. He fled from Mocha on Thursday fled to Riyadh um and said that um um that it was noted that this visit by Saleh came uh comes after he moved from the city of uh Al Mocha to a safe location to oversee the reorganization of his forces. So, um he retreated from Mocha, the key strategic port town. Uh and he is where the rest of the uh so-called uh you US-backed government uh in exile is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Let's take a look at number five. It's another satellite uh view of the same Bab el-Mandeb Strait that you can also see with the uh mountain lines. Again, the very clear those mountains, and those mountains are where the Yemeni armed forces and Ansar Allah's forces and allies, that is where they do their best fighting, and um they definitely did that in this lightning offensive. So, let's take a look at it. Um there's going to be some audio Just hold on one sec, Tamara. There's going to be audio in this uh of gunshots. So, be prepared a couple of times uh throughout this video, uh you will hear gunshots, but the rest of the time I will speak over what we're watching and tell you what we're seeing. Uh and this is my edit of 40 minutes of battle footage that the uh Yemenis released. Much of that footage was them sacking military bases and just exploring the bases that they sacked, um but we kept the combat footage here, and let's tee that up now, number six. So, these fighters here are showing you the mountains that we just saw on the uh satellite imagery. You could see um these Yemeni mountains. These are uh on the way to cutting off Mocha through the mountains. We're watching these fighters um climb pretty impressively. If you look at all aspects of the screen here, you can see uh various formations climbing the sheer rock face uh coming up here and there's going to be gunfire here in a moment. You know, Sun Tzu said don't fight uphill, but they fought uphill, overran the uh high point overwatch bases that um the Saudis had uh established with their forces um and so they pushed them over the mountains and into the mainland and you can see this battle footage um straight from the cameras of the fighters. Again, Yemeni military media taking us right into the battle. There's going to be more audio here in a moment. So, not just retreating, retreating literally driving backwards. Um RPG fire, small arms fire, uh technicals that they used um heavy machine guns and here they are marching into the towns after conquering the mountains, pushing the forces back. A lot of the and then here's their captured gear and it's remarkable to see the number of uh these light armored vehicles that have been captured. These are Many of these are straight group from Canada like this one here. Um this shows the Giants Brigade logo on it. Um you also see the PG-7VR in the fighter. Um but this that vehicle there, many of these are Canadian armored vehicles. That is a German uh auto cannon anti-aircraft gun that they have captured. There's an Oshkosh M-ATV from the United States that has been captured. That is a very useful vehicle. Um a lot of them have been destroyed. A lot of them have been captured. Um Canadian researcher who studies Canadian uh Saudi uh economic relations uh went through the videos. There's been more than 70 minutes of these videos. Um and he identified at least 40 um Streit Group armored vehicles that had uh from Canada that had ended up uh in the battle in Yemen. You can see the fighters there in the captured vehicle. We'll look at that again uh in a minute, but um here we get the classic uh Yemeni fighters standing on uh Saudi destroyed Saudi vehicles. In this case, Canadian vehicles. Um that's a Streit uh that's a Streit Group. Um and there's a drone jammer. We'll look at that a little bit closer, too, but um here the fighters are celebrating their victory. And again, this is from uh a much longer video. Um but this was the battle scenes in it because um the other forces basically fled. There was significant fighting. The National Security Forces, Tariq Saleh's forces said that uh they had lost 500 fighters and 1,500 wounded um before they fled. So, um there you see their mine-resistant uh ambush-protected vehicles. And in this next slide, we're going to it's going to have some audio of that uh clip that we just saw of the fighters in the back of the captured vehicle. So, they're just driving away in these armored vehicles that they have captured. Some of many have been destroyed. Uh but like I said, we're talking about dozens of these in the scope of this battle. Let's take a look at the next one cuz this is the fighter that had this drone jammer. Um that's what he's holding there. Uh an anti-drone device. And he says this is a drone drone jammer captured from the enemy. Um but also, as many of you probably know, yesterday uh the Yemeni armed forces shot down an F-15 SA from the Royal Saudi Air Force. Let's take a look at that video now. This is the latest version of the Saudi F-15 that is a You can see the launch of the surface-to-air missile, but you can't identify that surface-to-air missile. And again, operational security around these launches is consistent across the axis of resistance. They don't show the launch. But, here you can see the fighter jet dropping chaff. Chaff is for is like metal fibers that they drop to throw off radar. There you see his afterburners. You see his evasive maneuvers. He clearly knows that he's in trouble. And is attempting to escape. Those flares are the afterburners being fired up, which is potentially why you don't see flares dropped here. I don't think flares would matter when you have your afterburners ripping like that. But, there it goes. It's hit. No indication of any kind of ejection for the pilots. And this is the scene on the ground in the morning. And again, these videos we're very familiar with from the Yemeni armed forces standing on this gear, talking about this gear, saying, you know, this is the these are the innovations you know, of the enemy that they sell to the whole world as military accomplishments. And here they are under the feet of our fighters. You can see on that tailfin there with the Saudi flag. You can see the number. And that number is attached. The tail number is attached to the 55th squadron that's based out of King Khalid airbase. And that is the airbase that Yemeni armed forces have said that the more than 500 air strikes that have been hit Yemen in the last week and a bit. That's [snorts] where they're based in King Khalid airbase in the southwest of Saudi. So, they got the jet that is dropping bombs on them. And that jet seemed to have been to flying too low, um and got hit. And there's only a few missiles that could have surface-to-air missiles that could have got them, but I'm not going to speculate until we get more information on what that was, cuz like I said, there's a reason why the axis of resistance um operational security doesn't show us the missile launches, but >> [snorts] >> um we know that these missiles are in play. We know about the F-15 that was shot down in April in Iran. The US came out this week and said that that was uh a shoulder-fired man-portable air defense system. I doubt that that's the case. Um I think you're probably looking at similar systems here taking down both of these planes. And we know from the 52-day war that the um from the 52-day war that the Americans had and the Israelis had a number of close calls that they um managed to evade, but after the war admitted to it. Um so they have been close to this, and we of course know about the MQ-9 Reaper drone um erasure that has happened since the Americans brought those over to um to fight with Yemen. Uh more than 25 of those were taken down, but these um these fighter jets are obviously able to be hit by Iranian and Yemeni air defense systems, and that is one of the reasons why you don't see uh American planes flying over Iran despite the fact that you'll hear from lots of uh US-allied uh analysts saying that they do have air superiority they're going to get it any minute over Iran. Um but this is uh obviously a remarkable event, and uh if there's more information on what shot it down, we will bring that to you uh in the coming days, but suffice it to say, one last Saudi uh fighter-bomber dropping bombs on the Yemenis. Um let's take a look at number 10 here. We can see really on this map the physical geography of what um the Yemenis took. And you can also see the island. So, if you look follow down the coastline on the right. So, on the left is Djibouti, on the right is Yemen. Um down the coast is Aden there. And [snorts] then up the coast, you can see you see those islands in the water, in the Red Sea, in the channel. Essentially, islands that we will look into this, but if you were to build a checkpoint in a major energy choke point, like if you could design it yourself, you'd virtually put the islands exactly where those are. So, this is a strategic boon for the Yemenis if they're able to hold it. But again, they [snorts] have said Yahya Saree, the spokesperson, has said that not all shipping is under their um in their gun sights right now. It is simply Saudi shipping, and it is 100% related to the Saudi siege on their country that has been going on for nearly two decades. Let's take a look at the next cuz you can see the small island. This is the small island of Perim here. This was taken by an amphibious assault uh boat-borne assault on this island that overran it. This island has a mysterious airstrip on it that was presumably being built by the UAE who had these forces under their control. These militias that were overrun and rolled back were under um UAE control, and they're building um presumed to be building an airbase on that um on that island, but there is uh parts of it. There's landing strips already there. But also, you can just see the distance. That's Djibouti at the top, 20 km, and 3 km from the mainland. You have basically uh when you take into the shoreline and the depth of the water and the shoreline, those are out in the channels, and and we can see that in these next um these next couple. Let's take a look at 12 here. This is um from what is going on with shipping. These are charts from Maritime traffic global intelligence, but they show the pink shows you the essentially the highway upon which shipping travels through those areas. You see all to the left it's too shallow in those areas for shipping and so they have lanes established and you can see those lanes going right through the islands that the Yemeni armed forces captured. Like I said, if you were to to design this, this is how you would do it. But they're wielding this geography that they didn't have to design and they have taken over. Let's look at the next one. These are the two islands a little further up and again you can see the channel goes right bypasses right through the island. All three of the main major channels are right off that island and so it is a very significant those are significant islands to hold as is the entire coast. It makes anti-ship ballistic missile operations, anti-ship cruise missile operations very easy to do and largely undefended in the sense that they have full control over that coastline and the ships are unlikely to be armed and returning fire. So this is a real problem for global shipping and let's look at this next map that shows it. Sorry, these are the two islands in the north um that you can see is even more advantageous because they have to go the channels have to go around each of those islands within you know, a few looks like a few hundred meters essentially. You can reach out and touch them through there. So those are um choke points within a choke point if that is how the Yemenis choose to wield it. >> That is up to the Saudis at this point if they decide to stop starving and blockading Yemen which they've been doing for almost two decades. This could all uh shipping could all be opened if the Americans step down in Iran. Um, these wars could end. That's always important to point out. Let's take a look at 15. You can see the choke point percentages here. The orange circles are refineries, so you can see how um, yeah, [clears throat] I mean, this is where we get uh the world gets a significant portion of its oil both um at sea, which is upwards of 30% that you can see there, um of the total. It's about 20% through the Strait of Hormuz. Uh but we're going to focus on one key part there. You see through Saudi Arabia, you see the East-West Pipeline that goes out to Yanbu. Um, and that East-West Pipeline was built in the Iran during the Iran-Iraq War as a as a bypass to the Strait of Hormuz, to the tanker wars that would take um place in the 1980s. So, it was built for this exact purpose. And it was it's been hyped throughout the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that it's not that big a deal. Saudi can um put seven um put seven to nine million barrels a day through there. Um, but that is not what they actually do because they have to load uh the oil on ships, and that loading capacity is something around three million. Um, from S&P Global, the Bab el Mandeb Strait is a narrow choke point around 20 miles wide. Historically, as many as seven to nine million barrels a day of the world's crude has passed through it. Though uh Houthi attacks have forced many shippers to reroute since 2023. In August, 1.5 uh 1.5 1.5 million barrels per day of crude and condensates um traveled through the strait down from 3.4 million in July. So, having it. Um, and this uh East-West Pipeline has now been targeted, and it's been the target uh numerous times over the last um about the last week and a half. And uh it has been hit some nine times along the route with drone strikes, knocking out pumping stations. Let's take a look at the next slide. Oh, sorry, this is one more map to make it more clear. So, you can see the East-West pipeline there going to Yanbu, and you can see all the ports. This one is all the ports, not the refineries. So, the the yellow squares are ports, not refineries. But, you can see how the East-West pipeline is a bypass for all of the fighting in the Strait of Hormuz and also in the southern Red Sea. So, it was considered the one of the main legs that the global energy in order to keep global energy prices at reasonable numbers amid fear of it skyrocketing, the East-West pipeline was supposed to be that solution. It is responsible for 5% of the world's oil supply, and it is now completely shut down. How long it will take to take it back to get back up online, let's take a look at the photos satellite photos of it. Now, this is from space. This is a satellite photo of the burning of the pipeline and the pumping stations of 5% of the world's total the world's total supply of crude oil on fire and seen from space. The pipeline, like I said, is believed to have been struck in nine different places, but crucially three pumping stations that we can look at in this next slide. So, this is the pipe This is the pumping station, and you'll see in this next slide. Yeah, it's gone. So, the these These came from Vantour high-resolution satellite imagery of this. So, it's a very clear view of it. And this is the pipeline, like I said, that touts 7 million barrels capacity a day, even though it doesn't actually do that. Um [snorts] that is uh now completely shut down, and it brings oil from the eastern oil fields to the western port of Yanbu to ship out to um to the Mediterranean and to Asia. So, significant damage that will take months to fix, and months to fix, but if it takes 2 months to get 80% fixed, and then it's hit again, um this is the kind of situation that the that the Yemenis have set up for the Saudis. The Saudis have a lot to lose in this situation. Let's take a look at the video version of this from Soar Atlas that you can see uh the 3D Atlas uh company that has given us lots of these uh lots of this footage and shows you around the destroyed pumping station, one of three pumping stations uh destroyed. So, even before the Saudi exports were down 40% from last year, according to the International Energy Agency, Saudi GDP contracted by 5% in the second quarter alone, according to the Financial Times, and this is just the beginning until Saudi withdraws. But, here's Ansar Ansar Allah's position, the Yemeni armed forces. They said that they would end attacks on Saudi territory and shipping if Riyadh halted its air strikes, lifted its blockade on Yemen, and stopped backing militias in Yemen fighting Ansar Allah. The Saudis have a lot more to lose than what Yemen has left to lose. Um the spokesperson said, "A blockade The current policy is still a blockade for a blockade, aggression for aggression, but Ansar Allah does not have any plans to seize more territory and said uh in its recent advances along the Yemen's western coast was the consequence of the Saudis moving their mercenaries inside Yemen to fight us." And that is true. Uh Saudi has been touting for months that they were going to carry out an offensive against Ansar Allah in Yemen. Um and that's why when they bombed the runway um and essentially started a war that um they're going to lose and are losing a lot. Uh let's take a look at 22. They trying to cover up that they're losing. This is the Saudi energy ministry saying that the East-West pipeline has been shut down as a precautionary reason. I mean, you can pick whatever reason your pipeline is not working, but it's because of uh multiple attacks. So, there's the Saudi uh energy ministry admitting on September 11th, 2026 that their pipeline is shut down uh with no uh date for reopening. Let's take a look at the next one cuz this is from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They say the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's strong condemnation of the targeting of the East-West pipeline in Riyadh and Medina regions by several drones launched from Iraq, which resulted in injuries and damage uh and is currently being recovered. so, they blamed Iran. Uh sorry, they blamed Iraq. They did not want to blame Ansar Allah. Uh so, let's hear from the Iraqi resistance and see what they have to say about this accusation. This is published by the Iraqi resistance. It says, "At a time when we congratulate the proud Yemeni people on their continuous field victories against the Saudi forces and their mercenaries, we affirm that the accusations leveled against the Iraqi resistance regarding the vital the targeting of the vital Saudi oil facilities last Friday are an honor that we do not claim. At the same time, we express our astonishment at the Iraqi government's haste in adopting these allegations without relying on reliable evidence or concrete investigations." And then they go on to welcome an Iraqi inva- uh investigation because it wasn't them that carried out that attack. So, the uh Saudis don't want uh people to know that it was the Yemenis that destroyed the pipeline. um they just like they don't want they were really big on social media yesterday the Saudis trying to say that the F-15 footage that we just watched including it burning on the ground was fake or from a previous event or just trying to muddy the waters of a pretty significant defeat. Let's look at 25 because it's not just the pipeline. All of these installations this is Aramco's Saudi Aramco the Saudi national oil company. This is their um uh this is their Jizan uh refinery and storage facility and you can see these tanks at least three storage tanks being destroyed probably more and we've seen many of these just yesterday alone dozens of ballistic missiles and drones were fired at the Aramco Yanbu um um installation. So that is where the pipeline is supposed to be shipping if it was working would be shipping out of Yanbu but Yanbu itself is being targeted and the targeting was done according to the Yemen Yemeni armed forces by fighter jets um uh or sorry they targeted the fighter jets at King Khalid airbase the airbase that carried out the bombings on that their country. So they're fight shooting down the fighter jets and they're bombing the they're hitting the bases airbases with ballistic missiles and they say these operations will continue until the aggression and siege by the Saudis ends. So they've made this all very very clear the road ahead and this final map from space shows the two choke points in between the oil the world needs for um uh for everything um and the chief energy advisor at Gulf oil said to expect staggering increases at the pumps basically any day now. Um it was noted that US motorists have already paid $107 billion in extra fuel costs and this is just beginning. And the reason it's just beginning is because there was three pillars that held up uh >> so the oil global oil supply thus far such as it is. Um it was that China cut its imports by 50%. It was that countries tapped down their strategic reserves. They basically tapped them out literally. Um virtually. Um and so that's off the books now and now the East-West pipeline, which was the third uh pillar, is now uh offline and will be potentially offline for several months uh analysts say. Again, we don't know. It's very difficult to find those parts to get the parts replace them, get them in the field. A month, two months is not does not sound like um something that is an impossible timeline. And any further attacks just escalate that timeline. So this is something we'll obviously keep watching. It's obviously tied to the war in Iran. But this part is truly a Yemeni story. This is not uh what you read in your uh in the corporate media that Iran told them to go and do. This is a Yemeni front. Uh it's Yemenis acting on their own. But of course it in the context of the war in Iran, uh it adds extra strength to the resistance to the US Israeli project in um in Iran as well. So this has been the resistance report on day 1,077 of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.