THE IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS have seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast and captured three strategic islands on Friday, in a lightning offensive that cemented their hold on a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia.

The developments are likely to deepen the Middle East war’s impact on international commerce, as Saudi Arabia shut down an oil pipeline following attacks, and after months of Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea ever since Iran’s Hormuz blockade choked off its shipments via the Gulf.

Following a week-long offensive that has left hundreds dead, government officials said the Houthis seized the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Houthi fighter firing a truck-mounted anti-aircraft gun during what the Houthis said was an attack on Saudi-backed forces in eastern Jawf province, Yemen. AP / Alamy Live News AP / Alamy Live News / Alamy Live News

A local official with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Friday that the Houthis had “completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island”.

A government military official later reported the group had also seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, the last two islands in the narrow waterway not under their control, as well as all the neighbouring Red Sea coastline.

“Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen,” the military official added.

A witness told AFP that gunmen were “deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles”.

The capture of the islands, particularly Mayyun in the middle of the strait, heightens the Houthis’ ability to attack Saudi tankers, which they have been targeting since July.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, congratulated the Houthis on their “resounding victory” on Friday.

Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at Chatham House, told AFP: “Now the Iranians don’t only control… the Strait of Hormuz, but they control the other most strategic chokepoint in the Middle East.”

Oil prices have soared past $100 a barrel this week, while average US diesel prices topped $6 for the first time on Friday — a potential headache for President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections.

The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait was “safe” for all but Saudi Arabia following the latest advances.

‘Great victories’

The Houthi offensive has killed more than 500 people, according to sources on both sides.

It has also displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday.

It is part of renewed hostilities in Yemen’s civil war that began with the group’s takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014.

Houthi supporter Abdulhamid Dhaifallah lauded the group’s “great victories” in and along the strait.

“They have been preparing for this front for four years,” the Sanaa resident said.

Satellite images from Copernicus Sentinel Data taken on Thursday showed black smoke billowing near Medina, along the general route of the East-West pipeline that carries Saudi oil to its Red Sea coast.

The Saudi energy ministry on Friday announced that attacks led to the closure of the pipeline — which it had been increasingly using to bypass Hormuz — adding that injuries were recorded.

“The East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions was subjected to several attacks on Thursday morning,” a ministry official told the SPA news agency, adding: “The pipeline was stopped as a precaution, and the attacks resulted in some injuries.”

Before the Red Sea offensive, the Houthis already controlled a large part of Yemen’s north.

They have recently attacked government-held areas in Hodeida and Taiz provinces and swept down the coast, seizing the port city of Mocha and Zuqar Island, north of Bab al-Mandab, on Thursday.

– © AFP026