Yemen's Ansarallah movement, better known as the Houthis, has captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, officials on both sides said Friday, capping a lightning offensive that has redrawn the map of Yemen's long civil war in a matter of days.
The takeover of the tiny, barren volcanic outcrop, also known as Mayun, was confirmed by a senior military official in Yemen's internationally recognized government and by a Houthi official, both speaking anonymously. Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath also reported the island's fall, along with the coastal town of Murad overlooking the strait.
The island capture followed the seizure Thursday of Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea, taken after rocket attacks and a boat-borne ground assault, a military source told AFP. Reuters reported Houthi forces had also reached the Hanish Islands, while Iranian state media claimed the fall of Dhubab, the last major Saudi-backed stronghold on Yemen's western coast.
The advance crowned a breakthrough on the mainland: the capture of Mokha, a historic Red Sea port roughly 80 kilometers north of the strait, after hours of fighting Thursday. The National Resistance Forces of Gen. Tareq Saleh, which had held the city, withdrew; Saleh said he relocated his command center to a safe location after paying a heavy price against what he called an Iranian-planned offensive. Unverified accounts by pro-government sources claimed some 2,000 soldiers were captured on the islands after being abandoned in the retreat.
The stakes are global. Bab el-Mandeb carries about 12 percent of world trade and has become Saudi Arabia's main oil export artery since Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude jumped 4 percent Thursday to around 105 dollars a barrel, and U.S. diesel topped six dollars a gallon for the first time.
Riyadh answered with airstrikes on Mokha's airport and dozens more across Yemen. Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, accused Tehran of driving the offensive, warning the strait cannot be treated as a purely internal Yemeni matter.
The Houthis pledged freedom of navigation would continue, except for Saudi vessels, which remain under a self-declared blockade. There is no need for international concern, political bureau member Hazam al-Assad said, while warning of a bank of big important targets should Saudi strikes persist.
More than 20,000 civilians have fled the fighting toward Aden, in a week of renewed war that has already killed at least 500 people.