The Saudi coalition announces thwarting imminent attacks on the waterways south of the Red Sea

(CNN) - The “Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen,” led by Saudi Arabia, announced on Monday that it had “thwarted a plan for imminent attacks targeting the waterways south of the Red Sea.”

The official spokesman for the "Coalition", Turki Al-Maliki, said on the "X" platform (formerly Twitter), that "the coalition's naval forces carried out a military operation in Hodeidah Governorate, which included the destruction of legitimate military targets belonging to the terrorist Houthi militia."

He continued: "We thwarted a plan for imminent attacks targeting the waterways south of the Red Sea, and destroyed weapons depots and warehouses of booby-trapped boats and sea mines."

He explained that the operation "is within the coalition's objectives to protect the security of maritime navigation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait."

The statements came after the forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni government announced "the restoration of control over key sites" near the strait, which is a vital corridor for global trade on the Red Sea, as part of its launch of a new campaign to restore the recent gains achieved by the Iran-backed Houthi movement.

The military spokesman for the government forces, Majid al-Nuzaili, announced on the “X” platform that the government forces “succeeded in controlling Bab al-Mandab,” adding that they “cut off” the road between the Dhubab area, which overlooks Bab al-Mandab, and the coastal city of Mokha, which was previously under the control of the Houthis, and took control of it.

CNN was unable to independently verify this claim.

He said that forces backed by Saudi Arabia “have also begun carrying out a strategic offensive operation” against the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa.

If successful, this attack could weaken the Houthis' grip on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as their attacks on Saudi oil exports, which have been diverted away from the Strait of Hormuz, have threatened to push prices higher just weeks before the midterm elections in the US Congress.

The Red Sea has become an alternative export route of increasing importance since the war with Iran seriously disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Yemeni Saba News Agency, run by the Houthis, denied reports of the progress of Yemeni forces and the forces of the Saudi-led coalition. The agency quoted an unnamed military source as saying that the alleged gains were “fake” and considered “an attempt to cover up repeated failures and defeats.”

This comes after the Saudi-led coalition pledged, on Sunday, to provide full support to the internationally recognized Yemeni government in its campaign to regain control of the territories.