Military source says government forces took Mayyun Island and Bab al-Mandab heights
Yemen Herald News 
DHUBAB, Yemen — Yemeni government forces have taken full control of Mayyun Island and the heights around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, an unnamed military source told the German Press Agency on Friday.
The source said the Southern Giants Brigades and the Nation Shield Forces made the advance with air support.
He said the units captured the al-Ardi camp, Coast Guard observation posts and the mountain range overlooking the strait.
The positions were needed to secure the island and the shipping lane, he said.
He said Houthi fighters had been killed or captured. He gave no final count.
Clashes and clearing operations were continuing in the surrounding area, according to the same source.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify the account. No wire service reporting from its own sources, no United Nations body and no multilateral naval mission has confirmed that government forces hold the island.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah television denied earlier this week that government troops had advanced in the Dhubab area. Citing an unnamed Houthi military source, it called the reports “completely false” and said fighting for the strait was continuing.
The movement had not addressed the Mayyun Island claim publicly by Friday evening.
A senior Yemeni military official said anonymously on Oct. 6 that Houthi fighters were still contesting Dhubab, a town the government had already said it held, CBS News reported.
The advance is part of Operation Dawn of Yemen, which the government announced on Monday.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, wrote on X that the campaign was launched to restore state institutions, liberate Sanaa and end what he called the coup by Houthi militias.
Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the operation entered its fifth day on Friday.
Armed forces spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili said 1,729 strikes announced on Thursday had neutralised 1,370 Houthi fighters and destroyed or disabled 300 vehicles and pieces of equipment, the newspaper reported.
Those figures come from the armed forces. They have not been independently confirmed.
The media centre of the Taiz Military Axis said one airstrike neutralised or wounded 23 Houthi fighters.
Local sources reported that a schoolteacher was killed in al-Mahsha.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, wrote on X that Bab al-Mandab had been cleared of remaining Houthi forces. He gave no further detail.
The Giants Brigades published images of captured Houthi fighters in Dhubab and footage of searches on Mayyun Island. The material has not been independently authenticated.
Al-Nuzaili said on Monday that troops had taken Dhubab district in western Taiz province, its airport and the road linking Dhubab to Mocha. The government said it had also recaptured the port of Mocha.
The Houthis called those claims baseless.
Houthi forces took Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, on 11 September.
A senior military official in the internationally recognised government and a Houthi official both confirmed that takeover to The Associated Press at the time, Al Jazeera reported.
The island is volcanic and covers about 13 square kilometres. It sits in the middle of Bab al-Mandab and divides the waterway into two channels.
Houthi forces seized Mocha on 10 September.
Al Jazeera reported on 12 September that the movement controlled the entire Yemeni Red Sea coast. The Houthis also hold Hanish Island.
The Houthis took Yemen’s western coastline and several Red Sea islands in September, The National reported.
Bab al-Mandab separates Yemen from the Horn of Africa. Shipping bound for the Suez Canal passes through it.
Houthi attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden began in late 2023.
The movement has said its campaign against merchant shipping is linked to the war in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that the strait’s weight in global shipping grew after the Strait of Hormuz closed in March.
Wolfgang Pusztai, an analyst quoted by Al Jazeera in September, said the Houthis had the capability to shut maritime traffic through the strait.
Earlier in the campaign al-Nuzaili said 1,122 targets had been struck in Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz provinces, and put the number of Houthi fighters neutralised at 1,747. He said 364 vehicles and supply units were destroyed or disabled. The two tallies he has given cannot be reconciled from the public statements.
An unnamed spokesman for the Bab al-Mandab front said hundreds of Houthi fighters encircled in Dhubab had been called on to surrender and that some left by boat, Arab News reported.
A coalition spokesman, al-Malki, said the coalition had intercepted and destroyed three Houthi ballistic missiles.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition supporting the Yemeni government since 2015.
Yahya Sarea, the Houthi military spokesman, said last week that Saudi aircraft and missiles had struck Houthi-held areas 94 times in 24 hours. He put the total since the escalation began at 1,350.
The Houthi health ministry said a woman was killed in Sanhan and a girl was killed in Sawan, on the outskirts of Sanaa, and that seven other people were wounded. Those figures come from the Houthi authorities and have not been independently confirmed.
Al-Masirah, the movement’s television channel, reported air attacks on Sanaa during the first week of the offensive.
The Giants Brigades and the Nation Shield Forces were moved to the Taiz and west coast fronts before the offensive opened.
The Nation Shield Forces are also rendered in English as the Homeland Shield Forces.
Mocha lies on the Red Sea coast of Taiz province.
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