Sanaa: Ansar Allah seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast and captured three strategic islands on Friday, in a lightning offensive that cemented their hold on a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia.
The developments are likely to deepen the Middle East war’s impact on international commerce, months after the 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, government officials said the Ansar Allah now hold the Yemeni side of the Bab El Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea and, in turn, the Suez Canal.
A local official with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Friday that the Ansar Allah had “completed their takeover of the Bab El Mandab area and Mayyun Island”.
A government military official later reported the group had also seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, the last two islands in the narrow waterway not under their control, as well as all of the neighbouring Red Sea coastline.
“Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen”, the military official added.
A witness said that gunmen were “deploying along the Bab El Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles”.
The capture of the islands, particularly Mayyun in the middle of the strait, heightens the Ansar Allah’s 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 Gulf.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, congratulated the Ansar Allah on their “resounding victory” on Friday.
“Now the Iranians don’t only control Hormuz and the Strait of Hormuz, but they control the other most strategic chokepoint in the Middle East”, Farea al Muslimi, research fellow at the Chatham House think tank, said.
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.
The Ansar Allah’s military spokesman said navigation through the Bab El Mandab Strait was “safe” for all but Saudi Arabia following the latest advances.
“Maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which have already been banned”, Yahya Saree said in a statement.
The Ansar Allah offensive has cost more than 500 lives and has displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday.
It is part of renewed hostilities in divided Yemen’s brutal civil war that began with the group’s takeover of capital Sanaa in 2014.
Sanaa resident Abdulhamid Dhaifallah lauded the group’s “great victories” in and along the strait, adding they “were not small achievements”.
“They have been preparing for this front for four years”, he said.
The UN Security Council met on Thursday to discuss the conflict with Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg, who called for “the active investment of every member of this body to contain” what could become a more dangerous conflict. — AFP
