Gunmen were ‘deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles.’
THE wreckage of a Saudi Karayel unmanned combat aerial vehicle that was shot down by Houthi rebels over an area in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate.
Photograph courtesy of ANSARULLAH MEDIA CENTRE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Yemen’s Houthis took over on Friday a Red Sea island that is located in the middle of the Bab al-Mandeb shipping lane, completing their push to control the area, a local government official and eyewitnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Boats carrying armed Houthi fighters reached Mayyun Island after government forces withdrew from it yesterday,” the official said, referring to an island also known as Perim that divides the strait into lanes.
“The Houthis have completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island, which is located in the middle of the strait,” he added, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
An eyewitness said gunmen were “deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles.”
Hundreds of people have died since the Iran-backed Houthis launched an offensive around Bab al-Mandab, a vital artery for Saudi oil exports.
Phone diplomacy
Meanwhile, the top diplomats of Iran and Saudi Arabia spoke by phone to discuss “growing insecurity” in the region, Tehran said, without mentioning recent fighting in Yemen, where the two countries support opposing sides.
Tehran militarily and financially backs Yemen’s Houthis, who for years have held large parts of the country’s north and on Thursday seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha.
Riyadh has long supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and has been carrying out airstrikes on the Houthis since they began their advance, the group has said.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have also found themselves at odds during the wider Middle East war, which saw Tehran launch strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure and United States-linked targets in the Gulf kingdom.
Iranian top diplomat Abbas Araghchi spoke with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday evening about “the escalation of tensions and the growing insecurity in the region,” according to Tehran’s foreign ministry.
The summary of the call said the two parties “emphasized the need to continue cooperation and diplomatic efforts in order to prevent the spread of tensions and reestablish stability.”
Though the ministry did not specifically mention Yemen in the readout, a separate statement addressing the fighting there insisted it was “impossible to resolve the Yemeni crisis through... military intervention.”
The Houthis have controlled Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the major port city of Hodeida for years, but in recent days have launched a new offensive pushing towards the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, the gateway to the Red Sea.
