Fighters loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi stand in the area of the strategic Bab El-Mandeb Strait, in the southern Yemeni province of Taiz, on October 1, 2015. (AFP Photo/Saleh Al-Obeidi)
Aden and Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Yemen’s army and Saudi-led coalition forces retook the strategic Bab El-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea on Thursday in a major military operation against Houthi rebels and allied supporters of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The operation had been planned for “a long time” by loyalists of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Yemen’s insurgents for more than six months, a military source said.
Coalition warplanes, including Apache helicopters, participated in the operation alongside warships positioned off the southern coast of Yemen.
Earlier this week loyalists backed by coalition forces seized control of a strategic dam in the central province of Ma’rib.
In the past few weeks, pro-government forces, known as the Popular Resistance, have been pushing to liberate Sana’a, which has been out of government control since September of 2014 when the Houthis toppled Hadi from power.
Saudi Arabia started a military campaign in late March aimed at driving the Houthis back to their northern stronghold and restoring Hadi to power.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said the weapons seized from an Iranian fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea on Saturday were similar to those found on board of Jihan 1—the Iranian ship intercepted by Yemen authorities off Aden while en route from Iran in 2013.
On Saturday, Arab coalition intercepted an Iranian fishing boat some 150 miles (241 kilometers) off the Omani city of Salalah carrying weapons meant for the insurgent group. The vessel was loaded with large quantities of weaponry, including anti-tank shells, shell-battery kits, firing guidance systems, launchers and binoculars’ batteries.
Saturday’s smuggling attempt, Yassin argued was “a message from Tehran to the insurgents that it still sides with them and provides them with weapons.”
Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Iran of providing military support to the Houthis—a charge Iran denies.