‘Fall of Al Duraihami will pave the way to secure Bab Al Mandeb strait’

Aden / WAM

The fall of the Al Duraihami district of Hodeidah to the Yemeni National Resistance Forces is a turning point of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition military campaign, launched in 2015 to defeat the Houthis and restore Yemen’s government.
The recent victory, in which the UAE Armed Forces participated, and backed the Yemeni Resistance, has brought the Coalition closer to a key rebel-held port in Hodeidah, Yemen’s third largest city and home to its biggest port.
The Al Duraihami district is of strategic importance in the operation to liberate the governorate of Hodeidah, especially Hodeidah port, a vital lifeline through which most of Yemen’s food and medicine is shipped.
Hodeidah port, one of the key ports on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast, is used by the coup perpetrators for deliveries of weapons smuggled from Iran. It has also been used as a base to target international shipping at one of the world’s most vital waterways, the Bab Al Mandeb strait.
Bab Al Mandeb Strait is a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East and is a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Located between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea, it connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Most oil and gas exports from the Arabian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal and the SUMED Pipeline also pass through Bab Al Mandeb.
According to the Washington-based US Energy Information Administration, an estimated 4.8 million b/d of crude oil and refined petroleum products flowed through this waterway in 2016 towards Europe, the United States, and Asia, an increase from 3.3 million b/d in 2011.
The capture of Al Duraihami district coincides with a statement from the Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi who has reportedly acknowledged recent rebel losses in battles around Hodeidah.
Other recent victories by the forces of the Saudi-led Coalition have included the liberation of Muza’, al-Wazeya, Al Barah and Maqbna in the west of Taiz governorate, and, in particular, the liberation of Al Barah city, which is the gateway of military operations towards the Taiz governorate from the west. This is contributing to the lifting of the siege of Taiz from the western side.

Taking control of the Imary Camp, the second largest military base on the Red Sea Coast after the Khalid Ibn Al Waleed camp in Muza’, now fully liberated, has also made it possible for the pro-government forces to protect the international navigation passage through the Bab Al Mandeb.

So far, the Arab Coalition has liberated a coastline of more than 350 kilometres, starting from Aden up to the north of Hayes district, expelling the Houthi rebels from the Bab Al Mandeb and securing the safety of international navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Coalition’s continuing efforts to fully retake the Red Sea Coast are part of its strategy to secure international navigation in the Red Sea and to end the threat posed by the Houthi militia to international navigation through the arbitrary planting of mines from their terrorist base at Hodeidah Port.

The Yemeni National Resistance Forces, backed by the UAE Armed Forces, have also liberated Hima Port, situated north of Al Khawkha, also in Hodeidah Governorate. A day earlier, the forces also liberated the entire Wazi’ya front, driving the Iran-backed Houthi militia out of their pockets in the area.

The resistance forces have also taken control of the strategic Al Ma’mari camp, east of al-Dhabab area, which is a link to three regions of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast, dealing a further heavy blow to the rebels. This is viewed as an important step in the drive to secure the entire Coast and Bab Al Mandeb Strait.