CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured more strategic islands in the southern Red Sea, government and Houthi officials said Monday, strengthening their control of a major maritime shipping route.
The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish came as Saudi-backed government forces attempted to rally over the weekend and fight back after the rebels' swift advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Houthis' new gains further enable them to threaten Saudi crude oil shipments, which have used the Red Sea as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been attacking shipping.
The escalation — especially Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and its shipping in the Red Sea — adds pressure on global oil supplies and prices, and that could give Iran leverage in its war with the United States.
The Houthi rebels deployed fighters on the Hanish islands, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Bab el-Mandeb after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago, according to two government officials and a Houthi official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.
The capture of the islands came after the rebels last week seized the port city of Mokha on the mainland nearby and the island of Mayun, located inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis’ advances also put them just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The advances came with little resistance from forces of the internationally recognized government. But over the weekend, those forces sought to regroup, and the Yemeni military said late Sunday that they have advanced toward the strategic town of Dhubab, north of the strait.
The fighting is pushing Yemen back into full-fledged civil war, after a truce that largely maintained quiet the past three years.
