The lightning Houthi advance down Yemen's Red Sea coast this week came with direct guidance from Iran's Revolutionary Guards seeking to open a new front in Iran's war with the U.S., according to Yemeni government, Iranian and regional sources. By seizing the southwestern port city of Mocha, the Houthis have strengthened their chokehold on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key waterway whose disruption further constricts global energy supplies after Iran blockades the Strait of Hormuz. Six months into the wider regional conflict between the Houthis' Iranian allies and the United States, the group now looks focused on consolidating that grip on the strait even as opposing government forces backed by Saudi Arabia focus on an offensive in the north. Two Iranian sources claimed that Iran told the Houthis last week to escalate their attacks on Saudi Arabia and promised more funding, weapons and senior officers to help them...
Nepali authorities retrieved another 10 bodies in flood-hit areas as the death toll from devastating floods and mudslides that struck the Nepal-China border late last month climbed to 1,410, with over 5,650 still missing, official statistics showed Wednesday. Of those missing, 848 are foreigners, according to official figures from both Nepal and China. Some 1,367 bodies have been recovered from flood-stricken districts in Nepal, while 5,132 people, including 587 foreigners, remain missing, according to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. Over 13,600 people have so far been rescued, including as recently as last weekend. Read: Pakistan dispatches 100 tons of humanitarian assistance to Nepal The death toll from massive mudslides in China's southwestern Xizang Autonomous Region, also known as Tibet, remains 43, with 519 people, including 261 foreigners, still missing. The disaster struck on August 26 when a glacier on Nepal's Mount...