Middle East escalation: Iranian strikes hit US aircraft in Jordan, Brent crude tops $107 after Houthi seizure of Mocha, vessels attacked near Oman's Khasab

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy announced on Friday that the East-West Pipeline had been shut down as a precaution after it was targeted in the Riyadh and Madinah regions on Thursday.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA), citing a ministry official, said: “The East-West Pipeline in the Riyadh and Madinah regions was subjected to several attacks on Thursday morning. The pipeline was shut down as a precautionary measure, and the attacks resulted in several injuries. Medical care was provided to those injured.”

The official said emergency and specialised technical teams began work immediately after the attacks, taking the necessary measures to secure the pipeline and verify its safety in accordance with approved safety procedures and emergency plans, in coordination with the relevant authorities.

Any further developments will be announced in due course, the official added.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have seized control of the country's entire Red Sea coast, a military official from the internationally recognised government told AFP on Friday, consolidating the group's control of the vital waterway.

The official said that all territory under government control "on the western coast has fallen", after the Houthis seized the strategic Mayyun Island and the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the Bab al-Mandab strait as they seek to choke off Saudi oil exports.

Iran's foreign ministry said the country would meet with Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has blockaded during the Middle East war.

"This meeting is intended to promote better understanding among the countries of the region and help strengthen shared regional security," the ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding: "Iraq and other littoral Persian Gulf states" will participate.

Yemen's Houthis on Friday seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, the last two islands that were not under their control in the Bab al-Mandab strait, a military official in the internationally recognised government told AFP.

"Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen," the official said, hours after the Houthis seized control of the strategic Mayyun Island, part of its campaign to consolidate its control over the vital shipping corridor.

The Houthi military spokesman said on Friday that navigation through the Bab al-Mandab strait is "safe" for all but Saudi Arabia, after the Iran-backed group sealed its takeover of the vital shipping corridor.

"Maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which have already been banned," Yahya Saree said in a statement.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that pressure on his country from the United States had reached a critical and dangerous stage, speaking in India ahead of a Brics summit.

"Iran has been subjected to heavy sanctions in recent years; this pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel," he said, adding that "the world today is going through a period of unprecedented complexity".

The Israeli military said it killed Mohammed Al-Yazouri, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, along with Hudhaifa Muammar and Mohammed Bahjat Rashi, in an air strike on the Khan Younis area on Thursday night.

Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, confirmed Al Yazouri’s death, identifying him as a member of its General Military Council and commander of the Khan Younis Brigade. In a statement, the group said Al Yazouri, also known as Abu Haitham, had previously held several senior positions within the brigade, including battalion commander, intelligence chief and deputy brigade commander, and had played a role in planning the October 7 attack.

Six missiles struck the port on Friday in Yemen's strategic Red Sea city of Mocha, now under Houthi control, a local official told AFP, without specifying where they came from.

"Six missiles targeted the Mocha port," the Yemeni government official said.

Earlier on Friday, media for the Iran-backed Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of launching two strikes on the airport in Mocha, which the Houthis seized on Thursday in a large-scale offensive against Riyadh-backed Yemeni government forces.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei called the advance in Yemen by Tehran-backed Houthi fighters a "resounding victory" on Friday, after they seized a key island in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.

"Congratulations on this resounding victory, Ansar Allah," Mohammad Mokhber wrote on X, referring to the Houthis by their formal name.

A member of the Houthis' politburo on Friday sought to allay global fears for international shipping through the crucial Bab al-Mandab waterway after fighters from the Iran-backed group completed their takeover of the area.

"Freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab are safe and orderly," Hazem al-Assad told the Al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet. "There is no cause for international concern, as they face no danger from the Yemeni side."

Israel said Friday it was prepared to strike Hezbollah further at new locations after a massive demolition of tunnels built by the Iranian-backed armed group in southern Lebanon.

"We are ready and prepared to continue the campaign, to continue striking Hezbollah and at additional locations," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump rejected a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for strikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen, news outlet Axios reported on Thursday.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who have for years controlled large parts of northern Yemen, launched a large-scale offensive last week against Saudi-backed government forces, killing hundreds.

Saudi Arabia has responded with dozens of airstrikes, with the latest two hitting an airport, Houthi media reported on Friday.

Yemen's Houthis took over on Friday a Red Sea island in the middle of the Bab al-Mandeb shipping lane, completing their push to control the area, a local government official and eyewitnesses told AFP.

"Boats carrying armed Houthi fighters reached Mayyun Island after government forces withdrew from it yesterday," the official said, referring to an island also known as Perim that divides the strait into lanes.

"The Houthis have completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island, which is located in the middle of the strait," he added, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

An eyewitness said gunmen were "deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles".

Leaders from Russia and Iran were in India for talks on Friday, ahead of a BRICS summit dominated by conflict and economic challenges, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will also attend.

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil are expected on the agenda at the two-day annual summit that opens on Saturday, when Xi is set to arrive.

It will be Xi's first visit to India since 2019, and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Tibetan border.

Average diesel prices in the United States climbed above $6 a gallon for the first time Friday, the motorists' association AAA said, propelled by tight supplies due to the Middle East war.

The price of the fuel largely used in road hauling, agriculture and construction hit $6.06, according to the association, putting pressure on US President Donald Trump ahead of midterm congressional elections in November following his pledges of economic relief.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday for an 11-member BRICS summit where the the Middle East conflict will be high on the agenda, Indian broadcasters showed.

Pezeshkian, on his first visit to India as leader, will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the IRNA news agency said. The two-day BRICS summit opens on Saturday.

The International Energy Agency on Friday further reduced its forecast for global oil demand this year, citing the recent escalation in the Mideast war and resurgent energy prices.

The Paris-based agency now sees 2026 consumption falling by 2.5 million barrels per day from the last year, well above its August forecast of a 1.6 mb/d decline.

Crude prices have remained well above levels seen before the US and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, sparking a war that has seen oil infrastructure damaged in several Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia launched two strikes on Friday targeting the airport of the strategic city of Mocha, now under Houthi control, according to the group's Al-Masirah TV channel.

Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthis seized control of the Red Sea port city on Thursday after launching a large-scale offensive last week against Riyadh-backed Yemeni government forces.

"The Saudi enemy launched two strikes on Mocha airport," the Houthi TV channel said.

The top diplomats of Iran and Saudi Arabia spoke by phone to discuss "growing insecurity" in the region, Tehran said, without mentioning recent fighting in Yemen, where the two countries support opposing sides.

Tehran militarily and financially backs Yemen's Houthis, who for years have held large parts of the country's north and on Thursday seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha.

Riyadh has long supported Yemen's internationally recognised government, and has been carrying out airstrikes on the Houthis since they began their advance, the group has said.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have also found themselves at odds during the wider Middle East war, which saw Tehran launch strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure and US-linked targets in the Gulf kingdom.

Iranian top diplomat Abbas Araghchi spoke with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday evening about "the escalation of tensions and the growing insecurity in the region", according to Tehran's foreign ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was in India on Friday for talks ahead of an 11-member BRICS summit dominated by conflict and economic challenges, with the leaders of China and Iran set to attend.

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil are expected on the agenda at the two-day annual summit that opens on Saturday, when Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive.

It will be Xi's first visit to India since 2019, and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border.

South Korea and Iran's foreign ministers discussed the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call on Friday, Seoul said days after confirming it was weighing a "contribution" to the waterway's security.

Seoul's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi at Tehran's request, "discussing the recent situation in the Middle East," and the Strait of Hormuz, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Japan's Nikkei plummeted more than three percent in early trading Friday, with markets anxious that renewed tensions in the Middle East and surging oil prices could fuel inflationary pressures.

At around 9.15 am (0015 GMT), the Nikkei 225 was down 3.03 percent at 63,291 points.

The international benchmark Brent crude was still up 0.5 percent at $108.15 after surging 6.34 percent the previous day. The benchmark US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, jumped above $100 a barrel Thursday after Yemen's Houthis seized control of the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday.

Satellite imagery and fire-detection data are raising questions over whether Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has struck Saudi Arabia’s strategically important East-West oil pipeline, although there is no independent confirmation yet that the pipeline itself was hit.

A large smoke plume was reportedly visible over the desert southeast of Medina, along the general route of the pipeline toward Mahd adh-Dhahab. NASA’s FIRMS system also showed clustered thermal anomalies in the area. FIRMS provides near-real-time satellite detections of active fires, but its data do not by themselves identify what is burning or establish who caused it.

The reported fire comes as the Houthi-Saudi conflict is rapidly escalating. On Sept. 8, Houthi forces launched a major wave of missile and drone attacks against southern Saudi Arabia, with strikes reported around Jazan, Abha, Najran and Khamis Mushait. Saudi Arabia has since carried out retaliatory strikes in Yemen.

Four unidentified projectiles struck two vessels near Khasab, Oman, late on Thursday (Sept. 10), setting one vessel ablaze and adding to a rapidly escalating series of attacks threatening commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the vessels were struck about 4 nautical miles west of Khasab. One caught fire, while the condition of the second vessel was not immediately known. The incident was recorded in UKMTO Warning 133-26, issued at 1910 UTC (11:10 PM GST on Sept. 10, 2026).

Several US military aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, including an A-10 attack aircraft that lost a wing, according to people with direct knowledge of the incident cited by CBS News.

About eight F-15 fighter jets also sustained light damage but were returned to service, the sources said. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to discuss the damage publicly. No US deaths have been reported in the strikes.

The attacks occurred overnight Tuesday into Wednesday local time, after the US military said it struck and disabled five Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for attempted Iranian missile attacks on a US Navy warship. Iran’s IRGC later claimed attacks on eight tankers and two warships, including US assets at the Jordanian base.

US forces in Jordan launched more than 30 Patriot interceptor missiles during the attacks, the channel reported. The disclosure comes amid growing concern within the US military over declining stocks of defensive missiles and other precision munitions.

Brent crude topped $107.6/barrel as of 7.29am Tokyo on Friday as markets reacted to the Houthis’ seizure of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Mocha, near the Bab Al Mandeb Strait. Brent Crude rose by $6.42 or 6.34%, while the US benchmark WTI gained 1.48% to $104/barrel.

The Iran-backed group’s control of Mokha and nearby Mayun Island has heightened fears for shipping through a route handling about 10% of global oil supplies.

Analysts said the development is especially serious because the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed amid intensified US-Iran attacks on tankers. Saudi Arabia, which relies on Bab Al Mandeb for much of its Asian oil exports, has reportedly rerouted cargoes through the Mediterranean after previous Houthi attacks.

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence has activated early warning systems in Abha and Khamis Mushait, both in the southwestern Asir region, authorities said late on Thursday. The alert was issued to warn residents of a potential threat and enable them to take necessary safety precautions.

Residents in affected areas were urged to follow official instructions and remain alert to further warnings from the authorities. Abha and Khamis Mushait are located in southwestern Saudi Arabia, a region that has previously been targeted in cross-border attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.

Day 195: Iran Guards say target unmanned US sea drone in Hormuz

Day 194: Iran Guards say war can end if US halts threats, meets demands

Day 193: IRGC Navy warns tanker crews near Kuwait, Bahrain

Day 192: Iran says talks with Oman on Hormuz Strait reach final stage

Day 191: Iran to declare 'prohibited zone' near Hormuz Strait

Day 190: Iran military vows 'more severe' reprisals if US attacks continue