🔸Reports from Yemen indicate that Houthi militias, after taking the coastal city of “Dhubab” and reaching the strategic island of “Miyun” or Perim, have, as part of their rapid advance along the Red Sea coast, reached the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

🔸Four sources from the Yemeni government told Reuters on Friday, 20 Shahrivar, that the Houthis have reached the island of Miyun in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Before that, two Yemeni government sources said that government forces had withdrawn from that island and that the Houthis had also taken the city of Dhubab, on the coast opposite it.

🔸Dhubab is located directly on the Bab al-Mandab coast, and the island of Miyun lies within this strait. Control of these two points is strategically important for domination of one of the world’s most important commercial waterways.

🔸This is the latest stage of the Houthis’ advance in western Yemen. On Thursday, they captured the historic and strategic port of “Al-Makha” in the south of Taiz province and the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea, then continued their movement toward the south and the Bab al-Mandab.

🔸The Hanish Islands are a group of Yemeni islands in the southern Red Sea located near the northern entrance to the Bab al-Mandab Strait.