Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have captured the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the southern Red Sea, strengthening their hold over a major shipping route, according to government and Houthi officials. The move is the latest in a rapid advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after the rebels seized the mainland port city of Mokha and the island of Mayun last week.
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The gains come as fighting across Yemen intensifies, pushing the country closer to full-scale civil war after a truce that had largely held since 2022. The renewed violence has killed civilians, forced thousands of families to flee, and continued to spill across the border into Saudi Arabia, even as Yemeni government forces say they are regrouping.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a key passage for Saudi oil shipments and has become more important during the Iran war because it serves as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. Like Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Bab el-Mandeb is a chokepoint linking the Red Sea to the open ocean and to Saudi Arabia’s main Asian markets. For more than a month, the Houthis have been striking Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, adding pressure on global oil prices and increasing Iran’s leverage in its war with the United States.
According to two government officials and one Houthi official, the rebels moved onto the Hanish islands, about 160 kilometres north of Bab el-Mandeb, after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists. The Houthi advance has appeared to meet little resistance from Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. Their latest gains also place them around 32 kilometres from the US military base in Djibouti, across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Hanish islands had been controlled by the United Arab Emirates and its southern allies in Yemen. However, the UAE dismantled its military infrastructure there after falling out with Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government earlier this year. For years, Saudi Arabia carried out an air campaign against the Houthis while backing the government and allied militias, but it has appeared reluctant to fully re-enter the war despite the attacks on oil facilities and shipping.
The fighting has also expanded inland, especially in Taiz province, a longtime battleground. Yemen’s Human Rights Ministry said around 150 civilians had been killed since September 3, including a pregnant woman killed on Saturday in a village in Taiz, while more than 200 civilians have been wounded. Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, said thousands of families had fled their homes in Taiz and nearby provinces in the past day. He said, “Many of them don’t have enough food or water as they had to flee with whatever they could carry. In some areas, whole villages have reportedly emptied.” The United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including more than 2,000 who fled by boat to Djibouti.
The conflict threatens to reignite a war that has devastated Yemen for more than a decade, killing more than 150,000 people and pushing the country to the brink of famine. Since 2014, the Houthis have controlled the north, including the capital Sanaa, and much of the western heartland where most of the population lives. The internationally recognised government, backed by a range of militias, controls the south and east, including the key southern port of Aden.
Cross-border attacks also continued on Sunday. Saudi authorities sounded sirens in the southern city of Abha and in Khamis Mushait province, warning residents to take shelter from possible incoming fire. A Houthi spokesman said the group fired dozens of missiles and drones at the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, targeting hangars, radar installations and ammunition depots. In a statement issued on Monday, Brig Gen Yahya Saree did not say when the attack took place. There was no immediate Saudi comment on the claim. Saudi civil defence said overnight that a projectile landed in another area near the Yemeni border along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The statement blamed the Houthis. Saudi Arabia did not announce any new attacks on Houthi targets.
On Sunday, the Yemeni government’s military said it had launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and elsewhere in Taiz province. The rebels, in turn, reported strikes by Saudi-backed forces in Taiz and artillery shelling in Saada province, a Houthi stronghold on Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia. Sultan al-Arada, a member of the government’s presidential leadership council, described the collapse of government forces in Mokha, about 80 kilometres from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and elsewhere on Yemen’s west coast as “painful and regrettable”. He said in a televised interview aired late on Saturday that the forces “are currently regrouping and will return to the battle.”
On Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the presidential council, sought to play down the losses as “incidental”, according to comments carried by the state-run SABA news agency. He said the government “will remain clear and fixed on the goal of retrieving (state) institutions and of reclaiming sovereignty over all national territories.” People fleeing the Houthi advance told The Associated Press that they saw forces withdrawing and telling civilians to run, underlining both the speed of the rebel offensive and the growing humanitarian toll.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
