DM Monitoring
SANAA: As tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East amid the ongoing US-Iran war that has plunged Hormuz crossings sharply, Yemen’s Houthis launched a major offensive against military forces in a bid to tighten their hold over the Red Sea, with a death toll of nearly 130 in the country’s deadliest clashes in years, sources on both sides confirmed.
The Bab al-Mandab chokepoint has gained increased importance, with Iran’s closure of Hormuz, as one of the busiest shipping lanes connects the Red Sea — and, via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean — to the Indian Ocean.
A Yemeni military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that 66 of his men had been killed, while medical and military sources close to the Houthis said at least 62 militants had died.
Fighting erupted on Thursday, after the Houthis launched a ground assault along with rocket and drone attacks near coastal areas, vying for complete control of the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait at the Red Sea’s southern entrance. Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict, in July became the latest country to be drawn into the Middle East war as the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government.
The Houthis are now trying to tighten their hold over the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which they have disrupted with attacks on passing vessels since the Gaza war broke out in 2023.
The Houthi offensive aims to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab, military sources said.
