Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, announced that they had wrested control of the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the strategic waterway that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, from the Iran-backed Houthi militia. In an offensive launched on September 10, the armed wing of the Ansar Allah party-militia reached the city of Mocha (on the Red Sea coast). The Yemeni army staged a lightning advance on Monday, forcing the Houthis to withdraw from several of the areas they had taken last month and shifting the epicenter of the fighting to the southern city of Taíz, the third most populated city in the country.
"We have retook the island of Mayun [located in the middle of the Strait of Bab el Mandeb], the port of Mocha and this entire area of Dhubab, entering through here," the Yemeni ambassador to Spain, Aws Abdullah Alawd, said this Monday morning on a map of Yemen and in his office in Madrid. With a wave of his hand, he swept from Aden, the capital loyal to President of the Presidential Leadership Council (the caretaker Government), Rashad al Alimi, towards the western coast.
The announcement came just 24 hours after Al Alimi yesterday announced the start of a major military offensive dubbed "Dawn of Yemen" to recover all areas controlled by the Houthis, the rebel group supported by Iran. An offensive that breaks four years of truce sealed between Riyadh and Ansar Allah that the militia broke last July when they took over the strait. The conquest by Ansar Allah meant an advantage for Tehran when negotiating with the United States: the ability to simultaneously strangle two key nodes (Hormuz and Bab el Mandeb) for general global trade, and hydrocarbons in particular.
"We want to restore freedom of navigation in the strait," says the Yemeni diplomat, whose Government has asked for international support beyond that of the allied coalition led by Riyadh in a situation in which the closure of Hormuz has destabilized world markets, skyrocketing the price of hydrocarbons. "This battle may be the most critical test yet for the Yemeni government, with its credibility and survival as an effective governing authority at stake. It must restore confidence in its ability to protect the country, unify the forces under its authority, and translate advances on the battlefield into security, services, and effective governance," writes Yazeed Al-Jeddawy of the Center for Strategic Studies in Sana'a.
Meanwhile, the Houthis themselves, who deny the advances announced by Aden, managed to take new positions in the populated city of Taiz, where they have seized several roads and left government forces in the area under siege, according to five military sources from the Yemeni Government, in statements reported by Reuters. The group also threatened to attack air traffic in Saudi airspace.
Saudi Arabia, with which Yemen shares a 1,200-kilometre border, is the main backer of the Aden Government and has armed and trained the Yemeni government forces. Riyadh supports the military campaign with its air force and has sought logistical help from its allies to restore free transit in the Red Sea and end the group's attacks on its territory. The Saudi-led coalition claims that 100 fighter jets participated and that 324 "high-value targets" were destroyed, reports the Kuwaiti newspaper The Arab Times.
