Yemeni forces fighting for the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government said on Sunday, November 15, that they were withdrawing from the area overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, leaving the Iran-aligned Houthis in control, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters
"The Southern Armed Forces announce the implementation of a redeployment operation for its forces from Dhubab Airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate," the southern forces said in a statement. "This step is taken based on the priority of securing the capital, Aden, and the neighbouring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats."
Source: Reuters
A military source told South24 Center that the forces had redeployed to the Al-Suqya area in Lahj Governorate — in the Al-Mudharaba and Ras Al-Ara district, west of Lahj and adjacent to the Bab Al-Mandeb front — after leaving their positions at Dhubab Airport. The official statement did not specify how many troops were involved, or whether every unit in the Bab Al-Mandeb sector had withdrawn.
Source: South24 Center
Why the strait matters
The Bab el-Mandeb is one of the world's most important and busiest routes for seaborne commodity and goods shipments, particularly from Asia to Europe via Egypt's Suez Canal. Reuters reported that the government's retreat hands the Houthis greater leverage over the maritime chokepoint — a potent pressure point on global shipping while Iran continues to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, a dual squeeze that would further isolate Gulf oil producers from their main shipping routes.
How the front reached this point
The Houthis pushed south in September in an attempt to seize control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, capturing Dhubab town and Mayyun Island, which sits inside the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, South24 Center reported. Government forces launched a campaign in October to recapture the strategic coastal areas, and on October 5 the Southern Giants Brigades announced they had captured Dhubab Military Airport and cut the main road linking the city of Al-Mokha to the Bab Al-Mandeb area.
Source: South24 Center
The fighting has sharpened again in recent days. South24 Center reported that the Khraz area in Al-Mudharaba and Ras Al-Ara district came under missile attack on November 12, amid reports of casualties near a refugee camp, while the Houthis said they had targeted military concentrations; that on the evening of November 13 Houthi missiles struck Southern Forces camps in Aden, according to a military source; and that on Saturday, November 14, the government military spokesperson announced Aden had been attacked by two ballistic missiles, with clashes continuing along several fronts in Lahj.
The Bab Al-Mandeb front has been contested for weeks, with heavy fighting reported around the strait earlier in the campaign. Read the earlier Bab el-Mandeb fighting report
A front in the wider war
The escalation broke a 2022 UN-brokered truce and has become another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, Reuters reported. The Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia — striking Saudi ports, airports and facilities of state oil company Saudi Aramco, including the kingdom's Red Sea oil export hub of Yanbu, and disrupting flights and oil supplies — and Saudi Arabia has struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response. Fighting is also intensifying around the western region of Taiz, where the besieged city hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting; aid supplies are unable to enter, and civilians are unable to leave, Reuters reported.
The Southern Forces said the redeployment did not signal an end to military operations, and that they would continue efforts to break the siege of Taiz with support from the Saudi-led coalition. A government military spokesperson welcomed the forces' position, said liberating Bab Al-Mandeb and the western coast was an inherent right of the armed forces, and called on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities given the strait's strategic importance to maritime security and international trade, South24 Center reported. Neither report carried a Houthi response to Sunday's announcement.
Source: South24 Center
Watch three things: whether Houthi forces move against shipping through Bab el-Mandeb now that they hold the ground above it; whether the Southern Forces can hold the Al-Suqya and Lahj front lines closer to Aden; and whether Aden — hit by ballistic missiles on November 13 and 14, according to the reports — comes under further attack.