Sana’a, Oct 5. (dpa/GNA) – Yemeni government forces launched a major military offensive on Monday, seeking to retake the capital Sana’a from the Iran-backed Houthi militia and regain the key Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Colonel Majed al-Nazili, spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, said the military had begun a “strategic attack” on Sanaa as part of the Yemen Dawn operation.
“Our armed forces have begun carrying out a strategic attack on Sanaa,” al-Nazili said in a statement, adding that “modern capabilities” were being used. He did not specify the nature of the attack or the targets.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced the launch of the operation earlier on Monday, saying it was aimed at restoring state institutions, retaking the capital and ending Houthi control.
The offensive comes as government forces also reported advances along Yemen’s western coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a strategic maritime chokepoint linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Al-Nazili said the Giants Brigades and Nation’s Shield Forces had taken control of the Bab al-Mandab region and Dhubab airport, and had cut the road linking Dhubab and Mokha.
He said hundreds of Houthi fighters were surrounded in the Dhubab area, and called on them to surrender.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency, however, quoted a Houthi military source as denying reports of advances towards Dhubab, calling them “untrue.” The source said the reports were an attempt to conceal what it described as the “failure and repeated defeats” of Saudi-backed forces.
The developments came amid renewed fighting on several fronts, as part of the “Yemen Dawn” operation, announced by the Yemeni leadership on Monday.
The rival factions in Yemen have been engaged in heavy fighting again for weeks.
In September, the Houthi militia seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive, also gaining access to the strategically important strait of Bab al-Mandab (Gate of Tears).
The importance of the Bab al-Mandab Strait has increased further, as a result of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
Passage through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely restricted, since the start of the war launched by the US on Iran, and as Tehran seeks to control transit through the strait.
GNA