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Ansarullah’s forces take over Yemen’s strategic Red Sea island
The development is likely to deepen the Middle East war’s impact on international commerce, months after the strategic Strait of Hormuz was blockaded by Iran, which hailed its Yemeni allies’ advance on Friday.
After a week-long offensive that has left hundreds dead, the resistance movement appeared to be in control of territory along the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea and, in turn, the Suez Canal, AFP reported.
A local official with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Friday that the Ansarullah movement had “completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island", while a witness said gunmen were “deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles".
The capture of Mayyun island, in the middle of the narrow waterway, heightens the fighters’ ability to attack Saudi tankers, which they have been targeting since July.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea ever since Iran’s Hormuz blockade choked off its shipments via the Persian Gulf.
Oil prices have soared past $100 a barrel this week, while average US diesel prices topped $6 for the first time on Friday – a potential headache for President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections.
A member of the Ansarullah’s politburo had sought to allay fears for global shipping in an interview released on Friday, insisting “there is no cause for international concern".
“Freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab are safe and orderly,” Hazem al-Assad told the Al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet.
The offensive has cost more than 500 lives, and has displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday.
The Ansarullah carried out their heaviest missile and drone attack in years this week against Saudi Arabia – Yemen’s northern neighbor – setting oil sites ablaze and wounding 73.
Before the Red Sea offensive, the Ansarullah already controlled a large part of Yemen’s north.
They have recently attacked Saudi-backed government-held areas in Hodeida and Taiz provinces and swept down the coast, seizing the port city of Mocha and Zuqar island, north of the Bab al-Mandab, on Thursday.
While Saudi Arabia has hit back with airstrikes and ordered troop reinforcements from Aden, it has failed to stop the Ansarullah’s lightning advance.