Yemen loyalists seize strategic Red Sea island

Yemeni loyalists, supported by Gulf air
and naval forces, have captured a
strategic Red Sea island, the Saudi-led
coalition announced Thursday.
Greater Hanish island was “cleansed in a
well-executed operation conducted by
members of the Popular Resistance
supported by the joint coalition forces,”
said a statement on the official Saudi
Press Agency.
The Popular Resistance is an umbrella of
Yemeni fighters who have been battling
Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as
Huthis and are supported by coalition
troops, air and naval forces.
Greater Hanish is part of an archipelago
that commands access to the Bab al-
Mandab Strait between the Red Sea and
the Gulf of Aden, through which much of
the world’s maritime traffic passes.
It had been held by around 400 renegade
troops loyal to former president Ali
Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in
2012 before allying with the Huthis,
military sources said.
Saudi Arabia’s official Ekhbariya
television broadcast images from the
island of a damaged mosque and soldiers
finding arms and ammunition.
There were also images of warships and
of helicopters hovering over the island.
“The operation comes simultaneously
with ongoing operations by the Popular
Resistance in the (northern) provinces of
Hajja and Jawf to liberate them”, the
coalition said.
The rebels seized the Yemeni capital last
year before advancing on other parts of
the country.
Loyalists have since retaken five
southern provinces and are trying to
recapture the strategic Taez province
which extends to Bab al-Mandab, in an
offensive they launched last month.
The United Nations says more than 5,700
people have been killed, about half of
them civilians, since fighting intensified
in March.
A row between Yemen and Eritrea over
the Hanish islands sparked an armed
conflict between the two countries in
1995.
The dispute was resolved under a 1998
ruling by the International Court of
Justice, which granted Yemen
sovereignty over the volcanic islands.