Diesel hits record $6 a gallon as Houthis take key Red Sea territory

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

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

Earlier on Friday, media for the Iranian-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, according to multiple reports.

The Reuters and Associated Press news agencies also reported that the Houthis took the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Friday.

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, according to The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP news agencies.

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

Iran's Vice President Mohamed Aref also congratulated the Houthis on X , writing that Iran is "delighted with the victories of the heroic Yemeni people."

A group in Yemen attempted to use Anthropic's Claude chatbot to build guided rockets and missiles, the U.S. firm has revealed, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels are on the offensive in the country.

In a report published Thursday on how it had prevented illegal uses of Claude in several countries, Anthropic said it had "identified a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs," without specifying who they were.

Those were "a guided rocket that used a commodity phone-class flight computer with final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range goal above 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles); and a multi-variant missile ... that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant," the report says.

The cell used Claude to develop guidance, navigation and control software for the airborne weapons that would have otherwise required a team of engineers.

"We do not have evidence the actors succeeded in fielding an operational device; but they did test-fire a guided rocket," Anthropic said.

"This field test appears to have failed: within hours, the actors returned to Claude to work out why it failed."

Anthropic said it had banned the relevant accounts as soon as it had detected the illegal activity.