By Mohammed Ghobari and Timour Azhari
Oct 5 (Reuters) – Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have secured effective control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told Reuters on Monday, though fighting continues with Houthi forces in the area.
The government forces advanced rapidly along the coast with heavy Saudi air support to seize key positions in the Dhubab area on the narrowest point of the strait, a vital oil route whose seizure by the Iran-backed Houthis last month sent shockwaves through energy markets.
However, while Eryani said the military had seized Dhubab airstrip, located just inland from the strait, and cut off remaining Houthi forces in the area, another government source said fighting continued at a military base near the strait.
The Houthis earlier denied that government forces had made gains, describing such claims as “completely untrue”.
While recapturing the coastal area around the strait would make it harder for the Houthis to disrupt shipping between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, they could still target vessels with drones from positions further up the coast and inland.
Meanwhile, the Houthis themselves made important advances near the city of Taiz, gaining sections of a mountain road to leave government forces there besieged, according to five military sources with the Yemeni government. One other government source denied the road had been cut.
KEY ENERGY EXPORT ROUTE UNDER THREAT
Fighting has raged along several frontlines in Yemen for weeks after a dormant civil war erupted in a spillover from the US-Iran conflict, with the Houthis seeking to control the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait and firing missiles and drones at Saudi cities and infrastructure.
With Gulf energy exports already restricted by Iran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait, the fighting in Yemen has threatened another major oil export route, pushing up global prices and raising new risks in a region already aflame.
The internationally recognised Yemeni government announced on Sunday the launch of its offensive to recapture territory, with President Rashad al-Alimi swearing to fight “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia”.
Saudi Arabia, which arms and trains Yemeni government forces, is backing the military campaign with air power and has sought logistical help from allies to push back the Houthis, restore free traffic in the Red Sea, and end the group’s attacks on its territory.
Riyadh said on Monday it had attacked hundreds of targets in Yemen to provide air cover for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Yemeni ground forces.
The Yemeni government said it had launched attacks on several fronts including in the province of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
The Houthi-run health ministry said two people had been killed and seven wounded in strikes on Sanhan and Sa’wan districts in Sanaa province.
HEAVIEST FIGHTING IS IN SOUTHWEST YEMEN
While the war has raged on several frontlines in Yemen, the heaviest fighting has been in the southwest, both in the coastal area near the strait and in the hills around Taiz, where the Houthis have been battling to surround government forces.
Last week Houthi attacks damaged a culvert on the Taiz-Aden road, making it impassable.
On Sunday night the group’s fighters made new advances into the town of al-Turbah, sitting atop a high promontory on the road, five government military sources said, though another government source denied this.
A Houthi-run news agency on Monday cited a military source as saying the group had driven government forces from the al-Mawasit district of Taiz province, reaching the home of Alimi, head of Yemen’s interim presidential council.
Those fresh advances leave Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city with a population of over half a million and a garrison of thousands of government fighters, surrounded by Houthi forces, the government military sources said.
Taiz, nestled among Yemen’s southern highlands, has been on the frontlines since early in the civil war, often under Houthi shell and sniper fire.
Yemen’s conflict began after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in the following year with an air campaign aimed at restoring the government and ousting the Iran-backed group.
The fighting quickly ground to a bloody stalemate, with most frontlines stalled, leading to a major humanitarian crisis in what was already the poorest Arab state, until a ceasefire was agreed in 2022 that held until this summer.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Mohammed Ghobari and Jana Choukeir; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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