Houthis deny Saudi envoy’s claim that Bab el-Mandeb is cleared, after a Yemeni military source told AFP that fighting was fierce

The northern part of Perim Island, known in Arabic as Mayyun, in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, with the mountains of Yemen’s Sheikh Said peninsula in the background, photographed on February 19, 2007. [file photo] Photo: Michael Kleiner, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Saudi Ambassador Mohammed Al Jaber said on Friday that Bab el-Mandeb had been cleared of the Houthis, a claim a Houthi spokesman denied. A Yemeni gov’t military source had told AFP that fighting was fierce.

Al Jaber, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, wrote on X at about 6:44 AM ET: “Blessed Friday, and victory for every Yemeni and Arab. Bab el-Mandeb has been cleansed of the remnants of the Houthi terrorist militia,” in Mereja’s translation from Arabic. AFP, which translated the post as saying the strait “has been liberated from the last elements of the Houthi terrorist militia,” reported that he gave no evidence. Anadolu Agency also reported the ambassador’s statement.

A military source within the Yemeni gov’t told AFP that gov’t forces had launched a “major operation” in the strait region with the support of Saudi air power, but the source added that “fighting is fierce and advances are limited.” AFP said the source spoke before the Saudi diplomat’s statement. The Houthi-affiliated news agency Saba said on Friday that an attack by gov’t forces south of the strait had been repelled. The Houthis took the coastline along the strait in a fast offensive last month, extending their control over all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, and gov’t forces have been trying for several days to take it back, AFP reported. Al Arabiya English and Yemen Today later reported, citing military sources, that gov’t forces had taken full control of the strait and Perim Island. None of the claims had been independently verified.

Al Arabiya English, citing military sources, reported that Yemeni gov’t forces had taken complete control of Bab el-Mandeb and Perim Island, which is called Mayyun in Arabic. It said the Southern Giants Brigades clashed with Houthi fighters in the Dhubab area, captured several of them and released photos and videos of the captives on Friday. Yemen Today reported that the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield forces announced the full recapture of the strait and the island after an operation that began early Friday with support from the Arab Coalition’s air force. It quoted a military source as saying the forces took the al-Ardi camp, coast guard observation posts and the mountain range that overlooks the strait. The operation followed the end of a deadline given to Houthi fighters who had been surrounded in the area, Yemen Today said, and Al Arabiya said on X that a barracks in Dhubab was attacked after a tight siege and a three-day ultimatum. Asharq Al-Awsat, citing military sources, reported later on Friday that the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield forces had established full control over Bab el-Mandeb, the al-Ardi camp, Mayyun Island and the mountains around the strait, after the gov’t forces had announced the capture of the Kahbub heights.

Yemeni sources told Al Arabiya English that the Houthis sent reinforcements by sea on Thursday evening to their fighters besieged in Dhubab and that they increased missile and drone attacks toward Bab el-Mandeb overnight. Military sources also told the outlet that warplanes struck the Kitaf and al-Buqaa districts in Saada, the Houthis’ main stronghold in northern Yemen.

Houthi spokesman Ameen Hayyan denied the gains in a reply to the ambassador on X, writing that Bab el-Mandeb “is pure from the filth of the filthy Saudi entity,” Al-Monitor reported. In a separate post, Hayyan wrote that Houthi forces had been able to “confront and repel the enemy Saudi mobilizations that attempted to advance from the direction of Lahij toward Bab al-Mandeb,” and claimed the destruction of more than 22 armored vehicles, according to Al-Monitor. Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said in a speech on Thursday that the Saudi side had opened a front from the outskirts of Lahij toward Bab al-Mandab and that the situation there was strong and effective, the group’s Ansarollah website reported.

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, did not mention the strait in his posts on X by Friday morning. In a post at about 8:50 AM ET, he wrote that humanitarian flights to and from Riyadh airport “will be allowed” for all flights that hold a permit from the Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center in Sanaa, in Mereja’s translation. On Thursday he had claimed missile attacks on King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, Najran airport and the air base at Khamis Mushait.

Yemeni journalist Nabil al-Sufi wrote on X that the whole Mandab area, “from the Dhubab border north to al-Suqya south, and Mayyun between them,” had remained a closed zone for the southern forces from its capture in 2016 “until the withdrawal from it last month,” and that any movement there, including at Dhubab airport, the Mayyun runway, the naval base and the coast guard headquarters, needed their permission, in Mereja’s translation. Mohammed Abdulalim, who describes himself on X as a southern media worker, wrote early Friday, citing media sources, that the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield forces had started a large operation with coalition support to retake Dhubab and Mayyun Island and had already taken the al-Ardi camp.

The logistics risk account Terminus wrote on X that the Al Arabiya report should be treated “as claimed until AIS and UKMTO show the Red Sea lane clearing; freights follow traffic, not press lines.” The maritime news account Shipsnap, citing an explainer by Container News, wrote on Thursday that “even if Yemeni government forces succeed in retaking Houthi-held coastline, the strait itself won’t reopen to normal traffic immediately.”

Data from Kpler, reported by the shipping site DataPortuaria, showed 266 crossings of Bab el-Mandeb from September 28 to October 4, down 5.7 percent from 282 the week before, with 249 ships, or 93.6 percent, using the established traffic separation scheme, and dark transits falling from 26 to 17. The same report said no new Houthi attack on merchant shipping had been added to the International Maritime Organization’s Red Sea record for that period, but that UKMTO warning 151-26 reported a tanker that saw multiple explosions nearby on October 4, about 60 nautical miles south of Mokha. The crew were safe. AFP said the strait has become vital for Saudi oil exports while Iran blockades the Strait of Hormuz.

Djibouti, whose ports handle most of Ethiopia’s foreign trade, sits on the African side of the strait, across the water from Perim Island. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, speaking in Seoul on Thursday with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, said that “Responsibility for the security of the Red Sea and the governance of its affairs rests exclusively with its littoral states,” Ahram Online reported. He also rejected new arrangements for access to the Red Sea at the expense of the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of coastal states. In the dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel on Friday said the Ethiopian army’s deputy chief of staff had declared on September 27 that the army’s “ultimate destination” was the Eritrean port of Assab.

Sources:

Houthis deny Saudi envoy’s claim that Bab el-Mandeb is cleared, after a Yemeni military source told AFP that fighting was fierce

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