President Donald Trump declined to authorize direct military action for now but agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support as Iran-backed Houthi forces gained control of strategic territory near the Red Sea.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly asked President Donald Trump to provide direct U.S. military assistance against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement after the group captured strategic territory near one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

Trump and the crown prince held at least two telephone conversations Thursday, according to Reuters reporting published by Al-Monitor. Two people familiar with the discussions said Washington ultimately informed Riyadh that it would not take direct military action for now.

The United States instead agreed to expand intelligence sharing and targeting assistance, the sources said.

Neither the White House nor the Saudi government publicly confirmed the conversations. A senior Trump administration official said the United States remained in regular contact with Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

“The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests — such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea — while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges,” the official said.

Houthis seize strategic territory

The reported Saudi request followed a rapid Houthi advance along Yemen’s western coast.

The militants captured the port city of Mokha on Thursday before taking Dhubab and Mayun Island, also known as Perim, on Friday. Mayun sits inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

Houthi and Yemeni government officials confirmed the territorial gains to The Associated Press.

Possession of Mokha, Dhubab, and Mayun gives the Houthis positions from which they could more easily threaten vessels entering or leaving the Red Sea. The group has not announced a general closure of the strait, and holding nearby territory does not by itself establish complete control over maritime traffic.

The Houthi armed forces said navigation would remain safe for vessels other than Saudi ships. The group vowed “escalation for escalation” in its confrontation with Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis of attacking civilian and economic infrastructure. A Saudi Press Agency statement described the recent strikes as a dangerous escalation and said the kingdom would respond firmly.

Top U.S. commander travels to Saudi Arabia

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating security situation, according to Reuters and Al-Monitor.

Approximately 160 American military personnel have reportedly been operating in Saudi Arabia to assist with intelligence and operational coordination. Their work does not place U.S. forces in a direct combat role.

The administration’s decision leaves open the possibility that American involvement could expand if the Houthis attack U.S. forces or severely disrupt commercial navigation. Trump said in July that the United States would “take care of it” if Houthi attacks on Saudi-bound vessels continued.

Trump previously authorized an American air and naval campaign against the Houthis in March 2025. That operation ended 52 days later after Oman brokered a ceasefire between Washington and the group.

The administration has so far resisted reopening that front while American forces remain engaged in the wider conflict with Iran.

Saudi Arabia changes course

Riyadh’s appeal represents a shift from its position earlier in the summer.

Saudi officials previously told Washington that the kingdom could manage the Houthi threat without direct American intervention. They encouraged the United States to increase economic pressure on Iran while avoiding an expansion of the regional war.

The Houthis’ advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb appears to have changed that calculation. Saudi-backed Yemeni forces withdrew from several positions as the militants moved south along the coast, exposing disagreements and coordination problems within the coalition supporting Yemen’s government.

The Houthis have fought Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014, when they seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern and central Yemen. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year on behalf of the government.

A 2022 truce largely halted major combat until fighting intensified again this summer.

Two oil routes under pressure

The Bab el-Mandeb typically carries about 12% of global commerce. Its economic significance has grown as the war with Iran restricts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, located on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea to export petroleum that otherwise would have traveled through Hormuz. A serious disruption at the Bab el-Mandeb could force tankers to travel around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, adding time and expense to voyages between Asia and Europe.

Shipping through the Red Sea had already fallen sharply since the Houthis began attacking commercial vessels in late 2023. Oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel amid the latest territorial gains and reports of possible damage along Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.

Satellite images reportedly showed fires near multiple points along the pipeline. Saudi officials and the state-owned oil company Aramco had not publicly confirmed significant damage.

The Saudi request has therefore placed Trump between two competing priorities: keeping American forces out of another direct fight in Yemen and preventing an Iran-backed group from gaining greater leverage over a vital shipping corridor. For now, the administration has chosen intelligence and targeting assistance while leaving direct combat to Saudi Arabia and its regional partners.

An overnight stay with American troops placed the future “Jessie’s Girl” singer inside an active combat zone.

Rick Springfield disclosed that he believes he killed a man after being invited to fire mortar rounds during an attack in the Vietnam War, an experience the rock star says has remained emotionally unresolved for more than five decades.

Springfield, 77, recounted the episode during the Sept. 8 edition of “The Joe Rogan Experience”. The Australian musician said he was touring Vietnam with a band to entertain American military personnel in 1968 and 1969 when the group stayed overnight at a military position near Da Nang.

The camp came under attack, and Springfield said service members allowed him to place mortar rounds into a firing tube after receiving a radio report that no friendly forces were in the targeted area.

Springfield said he fired approximately five or six rounds. The following morning, someone at the position reportedly told him, “You got one.”

Springfield did not identify the person who was killed, the military unit involved, the exact location of the encounter, or the date it occurred.

A teenage musician enters a war zone

Long before Springfield became a chart-topping singer and television actor, he performed with bands in his native Australia. He said one of those groups accepted a four-month engagement entertaining American troops in Vietnam.

According to Springfield, entertainment groups were more likely to be hired if they included female performers who reminded the deployed troops of home. What initially appeared to be a chance for young musicians to earn money quickly placed the band inside an active combat zone.

During the overnight stay near Da Nang, Springfield said his bandmates slept in perimeter bunkers while he remained in a radio shack.

When movement was detected outside the position, the personnel handling the radio reportedly confirmed that no allied troops were supposed to be in the area. Springfield was then offered the opportunity to help fire the mortar.

The young musician accepted.

Springfield described his mindset as “John Wayne time,” a reference to the Hollywood legend whose war films presented a sanitized and adventurous version of combat. Springfield acknowledged that he was acting like an excited teenager rather than someone who understood the power of the weapon he was handling.

Watch: Rick Springfield Recounts Firing Mortars in Vietnam

The realization came the following morning

Springfield said the gravity of his actions did not become clear until the next day, when military personnel told him that one of the rounds had hit someone.

“I was responsible for the end of a life,” Springfield said while reflecting on the encounter.

Springfield framed the six-decade memory with emotional distance, saying it sometimes seems as if it involved “another guy, another place.”

A burden that followed him home

Springfield said he still has difficulty reconciling his youthful enthusiasm with the possibility that his actions ended another person’s life.

The singer’s experience also exposed him to other wartime dangers during the tour. He recalled accompanying military personnel on a helicopter mission and said many service members he met appeared uncertain about why they had been sent to Vietnam.

Springfield later built a successful career that included the 1981 No. 1 hit “Jessie’s Girl,” a Grammy Award, and a prominent acting role as Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital.”

Nearly six decades later, Springfield still cannot independently know everything that happened after those mortar rounds landed. What he does know, he said, is that the reality he ended a life remains “pretty heavy.”

Carlson said the Michigan Democrat was “obviously right” to criticize the wars that followed 9/11, while urging voters to reject Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers.

Tucker Carlson defended Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Friday over resurfaced comments about the human costs of America’s post-9/11 wars, opening an unexpected front in one of the country’s most competitive Senate races.

Carlson said there was “nothing remotely crazy” about El-Sayed’s 2021 remarks arguing that the Sept. 11 attacks devastated the United States, while the military response inflicted suffering on millions of people overseas.

“He is obviously right,” Carlson wrote in a Friday newsletter.

The former Fox News host stopped short of endorsing El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat whose policies differ sharply from Carlson’s views on most domestic issues. Instead, Carlson used the controversy to renew his opposition to Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman backed by President Donald Trump.

Carlson urged Michigan voters to keep Rogers “far away from Washington,” according to Mediaite.

What El-Sayed said

The dispute centers on comments El-Sayed made during a September 2021 episode of his former podcast, “America Dissected,” shortly before the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people,” El-Sayed said.

He went on to argue that public remembrances often fail to give sufficient attention to civilians harmed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He described the period after the attacks as an “era of death, destruction, and destitution” and criticized the trillions of dollars spent on military campaigns.

The comments resurfaced amid the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and quickly became an issue in El-Sayed’s race against Rogers. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001, striking the World Trade Center and Pentagon and crashing another plane in Pennsylvania.

Rogers called El-Sayed’s remarks “disqualifying” and argued that Americans should not be told to shift the focus of their grief away from those murdered in the attacks.

El-Sayed’s campaign has maintained that he unequivocally condemns both al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks. It has accused Rogers of distorting criticism of the wars into sympathy for terrorism.

Carlson draws a distinction

Carlson argued that El-Sayed’s actual comments were different from the incendiary statement made by left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who said during a 2019 broadcast that “America deserved 9/11.”

El-Sayed has appeared with Piker and benefited from the streamer’s support, giving Republicans another line of attack. However, El-Sayed did not make Piker’s statement, and he has called the remark “dumb.”

Carlson also rejected any suggestion that El-Sayed’s criticism amounted to support for al-Qaeda. He wrote that El-Sayed “did not celebrate airplane hijackings” but questioned whether the military response was justified or proportionate.

The Iraq War began in 2003 as the George W. Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein’s government of possessing weapons of mass destruction and maintaining relationships with terrorist organizations. Iraq was not responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, and no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were found.

Carlson attacks Rogers’ foreign-policy record

Carlson directed much of his commentary at Rogers, who served in Congress from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015.

Rogers has emphasized his experience in intelligence and national security during the campaign. Carlson, an outspoken critic of the Iraq War, U.S. military intervention, and American support for Israel, has portrayed that résumé as a liability rather than an asset.

Earlier in September, Carlson said he “wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint” and accused the Republican of being aligned with intelligence agencies and Israel. Rogers has defended traditional Republican national security policies and received Trump’s endorsement.

Carlson’s position places him at odds with the Republican nominee and many conservative commentators who have condemned El-Sayed’s statements. It also illustrates a widening division on the right between defense hawks and noninterventionists skeptical of prolonged military commitments overseas.

A volatile Michigan Senate race

El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination in August after defeating Rep. Haley Stevens. He is running on a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and reducing U.S. support for Israel.

Rogers is making his second consecutive bid for the Senate after losing Michigan’s 2024 race by fewer than 20,000 votes. Republicans view the open seat as one of their best opportunities in the 2026 midterms.

The dispute over 9/11 has now produced an unusual alignment: a prominent conservative broadcaster defending a progressive Democrat against a Trump-backed Republican. Carlson has not endorsed El-Sayed, but his increasingly direct attacks on Rogers could complicate the Republican’s effort to unite conservative voters in a race likely to be decided by a narrow margin.

U.S. officials reportedly believe hundreds of Iranian military officers are operating alongside Houthi forces in Yemen as the Iran-backed group expands its control near the strategically vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Hundreds of officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are reportedly operating in Yemen alongside Houthi forces, helping the U.S.-designated terrorist organization expand its reach toward one of the world’s most important shipping corridors.

A U.S. official told CNN that the Iranian personnel are assisting operations intended to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to a report cited by Fox News. The narrow passage connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and serves as a gateway to the Suez Canal.

The reported Iranian deployment comes as the Houthis consolidate major territorial gains along Yemen’s western coast. The group captured the strategic port city of Mokha on Thursday and seized Mayun Island, also known as Perim Island, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday.

The number and precise role of the Iranian officers have not been independently confirmed. Iran acknowledges supporting the Houthis but denies controlling the group or directing its military decisions.

Iranian role extends beyond arms shipments

The reported presence of hundreds of Revolutionary Guard officers would suggest a more direct Iranian role than the weapons transfers, technical assistance, and training Tehran has long been accused of providing.

Separate Reuters reporting cited Yemeni government, Iranian, and regional sources who said Revolutionary Guard personnel provided direct guidance for the Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast.

Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran had encouraged the Houthis to escalate attacks against Saudi Arabia and had promised additional money, weapons, and senior officers. A regional diplomat briefed by Tehran said several senior Revolutionary Guard commanders had traveled to Yemen to oversee operations.

One Iranian official disputed the characterization of the Mokha offensive as an Iranian decision, saying the Houthis planned the operation themselves. Iran maintains that the Houthis are an ally, rather than a proxy under Tehran’s control.

The United States has designated the Houthis, formally known as Ansarallah, as a foreign terrorist organization. Washington also designated the Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.

Strategic port and island change the military picture

Mokha sits roughly 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Its capture represents the Houthis’ largest territorial advance since a 2022 truce largely halted the most intense fighting in Yemen’s civil war.

Houthi and Yemeni government officials confirmed the takeover to the AP. Residents reported seeing Houthi vehicles in the streets as businesses closed and civilians fled south toward Aden, which remains under the control of forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

The Houthis then captured Mayun Island, a barren but strategically positioned island dividing the strait into two navigation channels. A Yemeni government military official and a Houthi official confirmed the seizure to the AP.

The Houthi armed forces did not specifically mention Mokha or Mayun in a Friday statement, but the group vowed “escalation for escalation” against Saudi Arabia. It claimed maritime navigation would remain safe for vessels other than Saudi ships.

Saudi Arabia reportedly struck Mokha’s airport after the city fell. Houthi media reported no deaths or significant damage from the attack.

A growing threat to energy markets

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait ordinarily carries approximately 12% of global trade. Its importance has increased as the wider conflict with Iran disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly used its Red Sea ports to move oil around the disruption at Hormuz. Houthi control of territory surrounding the Bab el-Mandeb could threaten that alternative route and force tankers to take longer, more expensive paths.

Shipping through the strait had already fallen by roughly 60% since the Houthis began attacking commercial vessels in late 2023, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel this week as markets weighed the risk of simultaneous pressure on two major maritime chokepoints.

The Houthis have not announced a general closure of the Bab el-Mandeb, and territorial control alone does not establish that the group can completely halt navigation. It does, however, provide additional locations from which the militants could deploy missiles, drones, mines, or surveillance equipment.

Yemen faces renewed civil war

The offensive also threatens to end the relative calm that followed the 2022 truce in Yemen’s civil war. The conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognized government.

“This renewed war should alarm us all,” U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg told an emergency meeting of the Security Council. He described the fighting as a “new and more dangerous phase” whose effects could spread beyond Yemen.

More than 46,000 people have been displaced during the latest surge in fighting, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Iran’s reported deployment of Revolutionary Guard officers, combined with the Houthi capture of Mokha and Mayun Island, places additional pressure on Saudi Arabia, international shipping, and U.S. efforts to contain the regional war. Whether the Houthis can hold their newly captured territory — and how aggressively they use it — will determine whether the advance becomes a lasting threat to trade through the Red Sea.