New video circulating online shows Houthi fighters driving vehicles straight down the runway of Mokha International Airport, just hours after the group seized control of the strategic Red Sea coastal city on September 10, 2026. The footage captures armed trucks cruising over open tarmac once used by Yemen's internationally recognized government, a striking visual symbol of how completely the city changed hands. It emerged alongside a wave of other clips showing Houthi fighters moving through Mocha's streets and displaying vehicles and equipment left behind by retreating forces. Together, the images paint a vivid picture of a Houthi force moving quickly to assert full control over every corner of the city, not just its port and streets but its airfield as well.

Mocha's capture came at the end of a rapid, days long Houthi offensive that ultimately overwhelmed Saudi backed government and National Resistance units defending the city. Facing sustained attacks, those forces were pushed to withdraw south toward Dhubab, a coastal area that now sits as the last line of defense before the Bab al-Mandeb Strait itself. The city had endured weeks of missile and drone bombardment in the lead up to its fall, including strikes that damaged its port, a hospital, and civilian infrastructure, leaving it battered even before Houthi fighters entered its streets. Its capture, and now apparent full control of its airport, marks one of the most significant coastal gains the Houthis have made since the country's fragile 2022 truce began collapsing this year.

The wider significance of this advance goes well beyond one city's airfield. Mocha lies less than 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and a critical passage for global shipping and oil trade. Control over Mocha's port, streets, and now its airport gives the Houthis an expanded operational foothold along this coastline at a moment when the group is also pushing to strengthen its position near the strait itself. That expansion comes as regional tensions with Iran continue to escalate on multiple fronts, from the Red Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears that Yemen's coast could become a second major pressure point on global shipping routes.

For Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the loss of Mocha and its airport represents a serious setback in an offensive that has moved far faster than many observers expected. Whether government forces can regroup at Dhubab and prevent a further Houthi advance toward the strait remains an open and urgent question. In the meantime, footage of Houthi trucks rolling freely down what was until recently a government controlled runway stands as one of the clearest signs yet of just how dramatically the balance of power along Yemen's Red Sea coast has shifted this month.