Yemeni pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia say they have “secured” the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the start of a major offensive against the Iran-backed Houthi movement.
A Yemeni military spokesman said Giants Brigades and National Shield forces were besieging Houthi fighters in the Red Sea coastal town of Dhubab, which overlooks the strategic waterway, after the forces took control of its airport and cut the road to the port city Mokha.
Houthi-run media denied that government forces had made advances in the Dhubab area.
The government said operations had also begun on several other fronts, including the capital Sanaa, which fell to the Houthis at the start of the civil war 12 years ago.
Meanwhile, a Saudi-led military coalition said its fighter jets had destroyed more than 300 “high-value” targets in strikes supporting the offensive.
On Sunday, the head of Yemen’s internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council announced the beginning of an offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis, insisting that all opportunities for de-escalation had been exhausted.
Rashad al-Alimi called on all armed forces, security forces and military formations “to begin carrying out their assigned missions, in accordance with the approved plans, until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia”.
It came after the Houthi fighters reportedly cut a mountain road near the south-western city of Taiz, effectively leaving government forces and residents there surrounded.
The Houthis also said they had launched ballistic missiles and drones at oil sites belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh and the Khurais area of Saudi Arabia in retaliation for dozens of Saudi strikes on their territory.
Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.
A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.
Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and quickly ousted pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including Dhubab, Mokha and Perim (Mayyun) Island.
They said they posed no threat to international shipping passing through the waterway but that they would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.
At least 959 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in the fighting in Yemen since 6 August, according to the government’s health ministry.
The UN says another 197,000 people have been displaced.
