Yemeni officials and sources told MBN on Monday that government forces and their allies had regained control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait from the Iran-backed Houthis. The claimed lightning advance came at the start of a large-scale military operation backed by air support from the Saudi-led coalition.
Moammar al-Eryani, the Yemeni government’s minister of information, culture and tourism, told Reuters that government forces “have effectively secured control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait,” noting that fighting with Houthi forces in the area continued.
Forces affiliated with the Yemeni government announced that they had regained control of Mocha, a city overlooking the strait in the southern Red Sea, weeks after it fell to the Houthis, designed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group.
Thabet Hussein Saleh, a former brigadier general in the Yemeni army, told MBN that the Southern Giants Brigades, a large pro-government militia in southern Yemen, had taken control of Dhubab district and parts of the Red Sea coast, and those forces were now besieging the Houthis on Perim Island, a key strategic island at the mouth of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Saleh said government control of Perim Island would mean the Houthis had lost the entire Bab al-Mandab area.
Government forces, backed by heavy Saudi air support, advanced rapidly along the Red Sea coast to retake strategic positions overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital oil route whose seizure by the Houthis last month sent a shock through energy markets.
The Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen confirmed on Monday that its aircraft had struck hundreds of targets in Yemen in support of Yemeni ground forces.
Al-Eryani said the army controlled Dhubab airport, a short distance from the strait, and had succeeded in isolating the remaining Houthi forces in the area.
The Houthis denied that government forces had advanced in the Bab al-Mandab area and called the Yemeni government’s statements “completely untrue,” according to Reuters.
Retaking the coast would make it difficult for the Houthis to disrupt shipping between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, but they could still target ships with drones from other positions up the coast or from inland areas.
With energy exports from the Gulf region already disrupted by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab Strait has become a vital artery for crude shipments. About 8.1 million barrels a day passed through Bab al-Mandab in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of nearly 50% from late 2025, as Saudi Arabia rerouted crude shipments to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
About 30% of global container traffic normally passes through the Red Sea, according to a 2024 report by the International Transport Forum, part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
On Sunday, the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government had announced the start of its offensive to retake Yemeni territory from the Houthis, and Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, pledged to keep fighting “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist Houthi militia.”
Saudi Arabia, which arms and trains Yemeni government forces, backs the military campaign with air power. It has also sought logistical support from its allies to confront the Houthis, restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and end the group’s attacks on its territory.
The Yemeni government announced it had launched attacks on several fronts, including the capital, Sanaa, which the Houthis have controlled since 2014 and which the government has named as the ultimate objective of the current military operation.
