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Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait Sept. 11, opening a new front at a vital global shipping chokepoint as a former Pentagon official warned Sunday the militants had entered a “kill box.”
The island’s capture came after a month-long offensive along Yemen’s western coast that killed more than 1,500 soldiers and forced Yemen’s government to acknowledge a “painful” defeat, according to The Associated Press.
“With Perim, they have gained what we could call the cork in the Red Sea bottle,” Morgan Murphy, a former Pentagon press secretary and retired Navy captain, told Fox News Digital.
“But they’ve put themselves into a kill box. They’re nowhere near the capability of the United States and if the president so chooses, he can wipe them off the face of that rock pretty easily,” Murphy warned.
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The Houthis reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on September 11 in a move to tighten their grip on a vital global shipping route. (Reuters)
Despite Perim sitting in the middle of the narrow maritime passage, Murphy detailed how the Houthis had effectively placed themselves in an area that is vulnerable to concentrated fire.
“Perim cuts that chokepoint right in half, and it’s only 18 miles wide there,” Murphy said.
He said the island has served as a pivotal maritime vantage point for hundreds of years, previously targeted for control by French forces and held by the British Empire for over a century.
Perim — a desolate volcanic island also known as Mayun — also sits roughly 20 miles off the Horn of Africa, placing it in proximity to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, home to one of the largest U.S. military installations on the continent.
“We have incredible firepower in that region, and that’s a little rock in the middle of that strait. It’s a volcanic rock. It doesn’t have any water. It’s uninhabitable,” Murphy warned.
“There’s no vegetation to speak of. And the Houthis have just massed their troops on that rock. So what that is, what we would call that in the Navy, is a kill box.”
Satellite imagery of the island shows a 1.85-kilometer (6,070-foot) runway alongside three military hangars, which regional intelligence reports attribute to past construction by the United Arab Emirates.
“There’s a 6,000-foot airstrip on that island. I think that Emiratis built it,” Murphy said.
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“It’s nice to have an airstrip, and especially a long runway, but we don’t know the condition of that runway. We don’t know how they could possibly use that runway, and they certainly don’t have the sophisticated air power that the United States and its allies have to project power from that runway.”
He added that the U.S. military holds overwhelming force options if commanders elect to target the island.
“We could wipe that rock into glass, just blast it into a smooth glass surface, put skates back on our feet, and skate all over it,” Murphy said.
“That’s why the Houthis have kind of played coy with the president, and they know that even if they fortify that rock they’re not going to be able to hold it in the face of the United States Navy.”
The developments come amid diplomatic maneuvering between Washington, Riyadh and the Houthis in recent days.
Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had called President Donald Trump twice Sept. 10 to urge him to authorize U.S. military strikes against Houthi positions.
Trump declined direct intervention, with U.S. officials noting the administration has no immediate plans for direct combat involvement but will continue offering intelligence assistance.
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Satellite imagery shows Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping waterway and the gateway to the Red Sea, as Iran threatens using Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, in this handout picture dated July 12, 2026. (Nasa Worldview/Handout via Reuters)
Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Sept. 12, Trump also indicated the Houthis had signaled a desire to avoid direct confrontation with American forces.
“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us. They let us know, they don’t want to fight with us… they don’t want us to go after them,” Trump said.
Murphy suggested, however, that Washington’s restraint should not be mistaken for inaction.
“I can’t speak for the president. But this administration has not shown a lack of resolve to use force,” Murphy said.
“I wouldn’t doubt at all if the president took steps to pound some of these folks into the sand if they continue to really disrupt the global energy supply.”
Yemeni government, regional and Iranian sources told Reuters the Houthi advance was sustained by Iranian weaponry and tactical direction from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, with U.S. officials estimating hundreds of IRGC officers remain active in Yemen.
Murphy noted that Tehran’s strategy appears designed to drive up global fuel prices by choking critical shipping lanes.
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Protesters who support Yemen’s Houthi group brandish weapons and shout slogans as they celebrate the ban imposed against the maritime shipping of Saudi Arabia on July 20, 2026, in Sana’a, Yemen. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
Comparing the conflict to historical naval power struggles, Murphy emphasized the strategic mismatch.
“We’re in a different era. They are nowhere near the sophistication of the world’s major powers. The Houthis are using a 19th-century playbook. They are not using 21st-century warfare,” he said.
“So, yes, they’ve caught a critical cork in the Red Sea bottle, but how they use it remains to be seen,” Murphy concluded.
“This is an example of why great powers really have to have a strong Navy. This is why Great Britain had a strong navy. This is why the United States has a strong navy, because there’s so many regional powers who want to try to bottle up shipping, whether it is in the Strait of Malacca, whether it is in the Strait of Hormuz, and here, in this case, in the Red Sea.”
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“I think what we’re going to see in the next several days and weeks is a coordinated effort by the Trump administration to make sure our allies are on board in helping us keep these critical waterways open, free, and clear for freedom of navigation,” he said.