Armed Houthi forces have captured two of the three islands that make up the Hanish Islands, AP reports, citing information from both the Houthi movement and Yemen's internationally recognized government.
The archipelago lies just north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which forms the southern entrance to the Red Sea and therefore to the Suez Canal connecting Asia and Europe. The strait's location makes it a highly significant and vulnerable bottleneck for global shipping, especially given the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The capture of the Hanish Islands comes amid escalating fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces, backed by a Sunni coalition led by Saudi Arabia. In a swift offensive last week, the movement captured the Red Sea coastal city of Mocha and the island of Mayyun (Perim) in the Bab al-Mandab, effectively taking control of the strait.
In parallel, the Houthis claim to have launched rocket and drone attacks on military facilities in Saudi Arabia on Monday. According to the Bloomberg news agency, it is an air base.
The Houthi movement is part of Iran's militant Islamist network together with Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, united by their opposition to Israel. On Monday, Tehran denied "any involvement" in the war in Yemen.
The Houthis are completely independent actors who make decisions based on their own interests, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to AFP.
