Houthis take Greater and Lesser Hanish islands as government forces withdraw
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Houthi forces have taken the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the southern Red Sea, government and Houthi officials said Monday, extending the group’s hold on a shipping route.
Hundreds of government-allied troops withdrew from the archipelago before the Houthis deployed there, two government officials and a Houthi official told The Associated Press.
The islands lie about 160 kilometres north of the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, took the archipelago days after seizing the mainland port of Mokha on Sept. 10 and Perim Island, inside the strait, the following day.
The Hanish islands had been held by forces allied to the United Arab Emirates. The UAE dismantled its military infrastructure on the archipelago earlier this year.
The National reported that the group had also taken Zuqar, an island in the same archipelago.
Perim, which the Houthis took on Sept. 11, covers 13 square kilometres and sits between the Yemeni mainland and Djibouti, splitting the strait into two channels.
Whoever holds the island can watch vessels entering and leaving the Red Sea on the route towards the Suez Canal.
Bab al-Mandab connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and carries cargo traffic bound for the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.
The strait has drawn closer attention since the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf, came under United States and Iranian blockades during the Iran war.
The Houthis have struck Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea for more than a month.
Forces of the internationally recognised government have tried to rally, but the advance has met little resistance, according to The Associated Press.
Sultan al-Arada, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, called the collapse of government forces at Mokha and elsewhere on the west coast “painful and regrettable” in a televised interview aired late Saturday.
Government forces “are currently regrouping and will return to the battle,” he said.
Mokha lies about 80 kilometres from Bab al-Mandab.
Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the council, described the losses as “incidental” on Sunday, in comments carried by the state news agency Saba.
The government’s military said Sunday that it had carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions at Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and other sites in Taiz province.
The Houthis reported strikes by Saudi-backed forces in Taiz and artillery shelling in Saada, the province on the northern border where the movement began.
The Houthis also fired a fresh barrage at Saudi military targets on Monday. The group said it launched dozens of drones and missiles at the kingdom, which backs the Yemeni government.
Saudi Civil Defence issued brief alerts in the border cities of Khamis Mushait and Abha.
The agency said overnight that a Houthi projectile had fallen in a separate area near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings.
Riyadh announced no new strikes on the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia waged an air campaign against the group for years while backing the government, and has appeared reluctant to commit fully to the fighting again.
The United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including more than 2,000 who crossed by boat to Djibouti.
The International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday that 93,864 people had been newly displaced across the country by fighting and flooding. Jabal Habashy district in Taiz accounted for 18,840 of them, and al-Mudharibah district in Lahj for 16,464.
“This escalation could not come at a worse time for Yemenis,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “In a country where half the population are struggling to put food on the table, and where many children have only known displacement, renewed full-scale conflict would be a blow to millions of families already struggling to make ends meet.”
Thousands of families fled Taiz and neighbouring provinces in a single day, said Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, which operates in the area.
“Many of them don’t have enough food or water as they had to flee with whatever they could carry,” Shah said. “In some areas, whole villages have reportedly emptied.”
The government’s Human Rights Ministry said about 150 civilians have been killed and more than 200 wounded in fighting since Sept. 3.
The internationally recognised government, supported by an array of militias, holds the south and east of the country, including the port of Aden.
The Houthis hold the northwest, including the capital, Sanaa.
The movement took power in late 2014 after storming Sanaa and seizing the presidential palace and military sites, forcing the government into exile.
Fighting resumed in July, ending a United Nations truce that had largely held since 2022. The Houthis allowed an Iranian aircraft to land in defiance of Saudi control of Yemeni airspace, and Riyadh struck the airport in response.
The Houthis then declared a blockade on the kingdom aimed at its oil trade.
The war that preceded the truce killed more than 150,000 people and brought the country close to famine.
The Houthis are tied to a network of armed groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, among them Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in Iraq.
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