Spokesman: Yemeni Popular Forces Establish Control over Bab al-Mandab Strait

The army and popular forces completed their control over Bab al-Mandab Strait in Southwestern Yemen after purging the Saudi-backed militants and the militias loyal to fugitive president Mansour Hadi.

“The pro-Hadi terrorists and militias affiliated who were supported by the Saudi-led coalition fighter jets, attempted to lay siege on Bab al-Mandab to secure the sailing of the Zionist regime’s ships,” Hossein al-Houthi, the spokesman of Yemen’s popular committees, told FNA on Wednesday.

“Over 3,000 military forces of the Yemeni army and the country’s popular committees participated in the operations to repel the attack from our positions in Bab al-Mandab Strait,” he added.

Houthi said that the counterattack inflicted heavy loss and damage on invaders, making them withdraw towards other provinces in the South.

Saudi Arabia’s navy vessels retreated from Yemen’s coastal waters after the Yemeni army and popular forces targeted and destroyed a Saudi warship in the waters near Bab al-Mandab Strait last week, the fourth Saudi warship sinking in Yemen’s offshore waters in the last one month.

The Saudi warship was targeted with Yemeni missiles in the coastal waters in the province of Ta’iz.

The sunken ship had repeatedly fired rockets on residential areas in Ta’iz province, inflicting casualties and destruction there.

It was the fourth time that a Saudi warship is completely destroyed during the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Other Saudi battleships retreated fast following the attack.

Last Friday, two smaller vessels of the Saudi navy were destroyed by the Yemeni missile attacks.

The coast of Al-Mukha is located in Bab al-Mandab strait and the Saudi-led forces have been trying hard for several months now to win control over coastal regions near the waterway.

On October 25, the Yemeni forces fired rockets at a Saudi-led coalition warship and destroyed it near al-Mukha coast.

On October 11, another ship which belonged to the Egyptian army and named al-Mahrousa was destroyed by Yemeni missiles in the coastal waters near al-Mukha coast.

On October 9, Yemeni army and popular forces also fired missiles at a Saudi warship, and destroyed it in Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The warship was wrecked off the Southwestern coast of Yemen, in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.