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Yemeni Government Forces Seize District Overlooking Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Military Sources Say
Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces seized key positions along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Monday, according to military and government sources, in an operation aimed at reversing territorial gains the Iran-backed Houthis made last month and pushing them back from one of the world’s most strategically important shipping lanes.
Three military sources and one government source told Reuters that government forces had taken large parts of Dhubab district, which overlooks the strait, and were working to assert full control over the area with heavy air support from the Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s internationally recognized government. Yemen’s official state news agency, Saba, reported that forces from the Nation’s Shield and the pro-government Southern Giants Brigades, supported by the broader Popular Resistance movement, carried out a large-scale operation with air cover targeting Houthi positions across several parts of the district, cutting supply lines and access routes leading toward Bab el-Mandeb in the process. The Southern Giants Brigades separately confirmed the launch of what they described as a decisive military operation in the area, saying their first units had already arrived.
Not every detail of the advance has been independently verified. Houthi-aligned media initially denied that government forces had made any gains in the district at all, a claim that directly contradicts the account given by military and government sources. Reuters said it was able to independently confirm government attacks on Houthi positions in Dhubab, along with the arrival of Southern Giants Brigades forces in the broader Bab el-Mandeb area, but stopped short of confirming the full capture of the district that government sources were claiming. Saba described the operation as marking the start of what the government is calling its liberation phase, language that signals Yemeni authorities see this as the opening stage of a broader campaign rather than an isolated skirmish.
The fighting isn’t confined to a single front. A Houthi-run news agency reported Monday that the group had pushed government forces out of the al-Mawasit district in Taiz province, claiming its fighters had advanced as far as the home of Rashad al-Alimi, who heads Yemen’s interim presidential council. That counter-claim underscores how fluid and contested the broader battlefield has become, with both sides reporting gains in different parts of the country on the very same day.
Dhubab’s strategic value goes beyond its view of the strait itself. The mountainous district sits close to the main road connecting Taiz to Aden, which represents the last route government forces have had into Taiz city, a location that has sat on the frontlines of Yemen’s civil war since the conflict’s earliest days. Control over that corridor carries real weight for the broader military campaign, since losing it would further isolate government-held positions in Taiz from the rest of the territory the internationally recognized government still controls.
Monday’s operation follows an offensive the Yemeni government formally announced on Sunday, specifically aimed at recapturing territory the Houthis had seized in recent weeks. Fighting along multiple Yemeni frontlines has intensified sharply since a long-dormant phase of the country’s civil war reignited roughly three months ago, spilling over directly from the broader conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. Since that renewed fighting began in July, the Houthis have declared a maritime blockade targeting Riyadh and have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Saudi cities and energy infrastructure, actions clearly aimed at asserting control over Bab el-Mandeb and pressuring Saudi Arabia as the conflict with Iran continues elsewhere in the region.
The stakes extend well beyond Yemen’s own borders. Bab el-Mandeb is one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, and serving as a critical corridor for global shipping and energy exports. With Iran’s actions around the separate Strait of Hormuz already constraining Gulf oil exports for much of this year, renewed instability at Bab el-Mandeb threatens to squeeze one of the remaining major alternative routes tankers have relied on, adding yet another source of pressure to global energy markets already strained by seven months of regional conflict.
Monday’s push builds on gains Yemeni government forces had already been making in the weeks prior. In late September, government forces seized a strategic mountain position known as Jabal Zalat, overlooking the Al-Omari area near Bab el-Mandeb, inflicting what a senior Yemeni official described as heavy losses on Houthi personnel and equipment in the process. That earlier advance put the Houthi-held Al-Omari military camp within firing range of government forces, laying some of the groundwork for this week’s larger operation targeting Dhubab itself.
Whether Monday’s gains hold, and whether the government’s self-described liberation phase translates into a sustained reversal of Houthi control over the strait, will likely become clearer in the coming days as both sides continue contesting territory across multiple fronts in a conflict that shows no sign of settling down on its own.
