Loyalist Yemeni troops and Gulf Arab forces seized the Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from Houthi fighters, reasserting control over the strategic sea lane, a government spokesman said on Thursday. Residents reported air strikes and shelling by warships in support of a ground push toward the area but could not immediately confirm that the strait had fallen. "In a large-scale military operation launched today, Yemeni government, resistance and coalition forces liberated the Bab al-Mandeb strait and Mayun island with the goal of safeguarding this key sea route," Rajeh Badi told Reuters by telephone from the southern port city of Aden. Six months of war in Yemen has raised concern over the security of oil supplies through the Mandab Strait, a thoroughfare for vessels heading for the United States and Europe. More than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the strait in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the civil war in Yemen in late March to restore its exiled government, forced out by the Iranian-allied Houthis, and contain what Gulf Arab states see as Tehran's growing influence in their backyard. The Houthi movement denies any support from Iran and described their seizure of the capital Sanaa in September last year and the Mandab Strait along with other parts of the country as a nationwide revolution against corrupt officials in the thrall of the West. Ground fighting and coalition air strikes have killed more than 5,400 people in Yemen, according to the United Nations, and exacerbated widespread hunger and suffering.
