By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies
The Yemeni Ansarallah revolutionary movement have advanced rapidly along Yemen’s western coast and taken control of key positions overlooking the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.
The YAF has stormed several Red Sea islands and advanced toward the entrance of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, several reports said Thursday.
The forces earlier captured the city of Mokha from Saudi-backed forces. Reports said they also reached the Hanish Islands and seized Zuqar Island.
Local sources told Al-Araby TV that Ansarallah-led forces took control of Mayun, a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The UAE has established military and intelligence sites on Mayun and other Yemeni islands in cooperation with Israel, according to the reports.
Tasnim news agency, citing its correspondent in Sana’a, reported that the Yemeni Armed Forces had taken control of the key al-Ardhi port area on Bab al-Mandab.
The move gives the YAF control of Yemen’s coastline overlooking the strategic waterway and could allow forces fighting Saudi mercenaries to exert greater influence over maritime traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The reported capture of Bab Al-Mandab, whose name means the “Gate of Tears,” would give the Sana’a government major leverage over maritime traffic entering and leaving the Red Sea.
“Maritime navigation is safe, and the security of navigation has nothing to do with the skirmishes that were extinguished in the western coast districts,” Deputy Foreign Minister of the Sana’a government Abdul Wahid Abu Ras was quoted as saying by SABA news agency on Thursday.
Top Yemeni negotiator and spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam also said, “Red Sea navigation is safe” and that “operations will cease when the aggression ends.”
“What the YAF has carried out in certain coastal areas is a national operation within the framework of asserting Yemeni sovereignty and addressing the challenges and ambitions that threaten civil peace,” he added.
The latest advances came after days of intense clashes between the Yemeni Armed Forces and Saudi-backed forces belonging to the Aden-based so-called Presidential Leadership Council.
The YAF has also targeted what remains of Emirati-backed militias in Yemen.
“The western coast fronts have witnessed intense fighting amid movements by Saudi enemy-backed forces, prompting the YAF to target these formations in the area with drones and ballistic missiles,” Al-Masirah TV said Thursday evening.
Yemen’s Supreme Political Council later announced an end to fighting on the western coast and said Saudi-backed troops had been “expelled” from the region.
Meanwhile, Yemeni military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced that the country’s air defense units shot down a Saudi-operated Vestel Karayel surveillance drone.
The unmanned aerial vehicle was struck and destroyed with a surface-to-air missile while conducting “hostile operations” over the Hajjah province.
Al-Masirah TV also reported that Yemeni forces stormed PLC prisons on the coast where Yemeni soldiers and resistance fighters were being held.
Abdul Qader al-Murtadha, head of the National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, said the YAF “succeeded in liberating all army prisoners from Saudi enemy detention facilities on the western coast.”
The latest gains followed a series of advances in western Yemen, including the capture of Hays and al-Khawkhah, the seizure of Yakhtul and the advance toward Mokha port.
Activists have also circulated reports that Saudi-backed forces withdrew from several positions along the western coast, including Khalid Camp at the Al-Mokha junction in western Taiz province.
The Sana’a government announced the resumption of operations at the strategic Mokha port hours after its forces took control of the Red Sea port city.
In a joint statement, the ministries of finance, economy and transport said incentives would be offered in the coming days to container ships and cargoes at Red Sea ports, including Mokha.
The measures include reductions of up to 50 percent in vessel and container fees, taxes, customs duties and other charges.
The government said the move is aimed at encouraging shipping companies to use the ports and avoid excessive and illegal costs in areas controlled by Saudi-backed groups. It called on merchants, traders and shipping companies to take advantage of the incentives.
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