Yemen’s Houthis seize key island in Bab al-Mandab strait ⁰

The Ansarallah-led Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) have advanced rapidly along Yemen’s western coast and taken control of key positions overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The YAF has stormed several Red Sea islands and advanced toward the entrance of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, several reports said Thursday.

The forces earlier captured the city of Mokha from Saudi-backed forces. Reports said they also reached the Hanish Islands and seized Zuqar Island.

Local sources told Al-Araby TV that Ansarallah-led forces took control of Mayun, a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The UAE has established military and intelligence sites on Mayun and other Yemeni islands in cooperation with Israel, according to the reports.

Tasnim news agency, citing its correspondent in Sana’a, reported that the Yemeni Armed Forces had taken control of the key al-Ardhi port area on Bab al-Mandab.

The move gives the YAF control of Yemen’s coastline overlooking the strategic waterway and could allow forces fighting Saudi mercenaries to exert greater influence over maritime traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The reported capture of Bab al-Mandab, whose name means the “Gate of Tears,” would give the Sana’a government major leverage over maritime traffic entering and leaving the Red Sea.

“Maritime navigation is safe, and the security of navigation has nothing to do with the skirmishes that were extinguished in the western coast districts,” Deputy Foreign Minister of the Sana’a government Abdul Wahid Abu Ras was quoted as saying by SABA news agency on Thursday.

Top Yemeni negotiator and spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam also said, “Red Sea navigation is safe” and that “operations will cease when the aggression ends.”

“What the YAF has carried out in certain coastal areas is a national operation within the framework of asserting Yemeni sovereignty and addressing the challenges and ambitions that threaten civil peace,” he added.