Israelis in Berbera, Americans in Bosaso: control of the southern approaches to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea is on the actors’ radar even beyond the Yemeni Houthis
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Two Saudi petro-tankers: Wafa and Daisy, were yesterday (August 5th ) the target of ballistic strikes by the pro-Iranian Houthis at two distant locations: Rebel movement “Ansar Allah” targeted the first mega-ship in the northern part of the Red Sea, and the second in the Gulf of Aden area not far from the strategic Bab el-Mandeb sea passage, claiming that “the hits were precise”. (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/houthis-claim-they-hit-2nd-saudi-oil-tanker-in-a-day/4019517).
General Yahya Saree, the spokesman of the Yemeni Houthis, presented these armed incidents as their “geographic expansion of the field of action”. (https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/08/05/880307.htm).
We could ask: Is there an escalation of tensions around the Red Sea, perhaps the Horn of Africa too, at a time when it seems that the drama surrounding the Pass of Hormuz seems to be subsiding? (https://www.ft.com/content/e0b10cad-3e46-4a6d-9227-eba6fe11c676?syn-25a6b1a6=1).
The answer is uncertain for now, but the number of new actors on the African coast near Bab el Mandeb is starting to grow of recently (https://www.vujic-geopolitika.com/2026/01/11/izrael-novi-akter-na-rogu-afrike/).
As for the Houthis, when they announced a naval blockade of Saudi Red Sea ports on July 20th , the focus of their first strikes was the Saudi port Yanbu on the Red Sea. Houthi attack on the Daisy—in the extreme northwest of the Indian Ocean, far from the port of Yanbu, raises the question: What could be the motive for the Houthis to launch an armed initiative against the naval and land “Saudi targets” right now? (https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/2026/08/04/yemens-houthis-claim-drone-strike-on-saudi-target-at-najran-airport/).
In the fall of 2023, the Houthis started their armed offensive against “ships connected to Israel”, and in the name of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. At that time, Saudi blockade of Hodeidah, a key Houthi-controlled Yemeni port—which they have this time cited as the focus of their July 20 “blockade”—was also pretty impenetrable (“legacy “since the fierce clashes in the middle of the last decade).
Whatever were the Houthi motives, then and now, Bab-el-Mandeb stands nowadays as a focal point of potential confrontation between numerous regional and global interests.
In this context, news arrives that the US military delegation headed by Major General Claude Tudor signed an agreement with the local administration of the Puntland region in Somalia on Sunday, August 2nd , on the expansion of the US military presence in the port of Bosaso (on the photo) in the Gulf of Aden. (https://ground.news/article/us-expands-strategic-foothold-on-somalias-coast-as-yemen-conflict-simmers).
With the aim of improving operations against terrorism, as well as helping to protect maritime security in the region.
