By: Hanah Olson, Horndiplomat Global Reporter
ADEN, Yemen, Oct 5 — Yemeni government-aligned forces said on Monday they had retaken areas around the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait from Houthi forces, as pro-government units launched a counter-offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Majid Abdullah al-Nuzayli said the Southern Giants Brigades and Nation’s Shield forces had “successfully taken control of Bab al-Mandab.”
In statements posted on X, al-Nuzayli said government forces had also taken control of Dhubab airport and cut the road between Dhubab and Mokha.
The Southern Giants Brigades said on its official X account that its forces had launched “a decisive military operation against the Houthi militias in Bab al-Mandab.”
Al-Nuzayli said hundreds of Houthi fighters had been surrounded in the Dhubab area and called on them to surrender, adding that some fighters had fled by sea.
Yemen analyst Fatima Alasrar said on X that the Giants Brigades had retaken Dhubab and the strategically important Kahboub heights, describing the advance as the Yemeni government’s first significant counter-offensive near Bab al-Mandab.
She said Perim Island had not yet been retaken, suggesting that control of the wider Bab al-Mandab area remained contested.
The battlefield claims could not immediately be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis on the reported losses.
Bab al-Mandab, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and is one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, carrying shipping between Asia and Europe through the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
(Reporting by HornDiplomat News Desk)