Yemen has been devastated by a civil conflict that started in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the authorities from Sanaa. The battle escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to restore the authorities’s rule.
A four-year-old casual ceasefire started to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and started missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil services and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they say is a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as properly as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Yemeni authorities claimed it was behind that strike, saying it was attempting to stop an unauthorised Iranian airplane from touchdown.
Last month, the Houthis launched a shock offensive along Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and ousted pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern finish of the Red Sea.
They said they posed no menace to worldwide delivery passing through the waterway but that they would proceed to goal vessels from Saudi Arabia.
However, the seizure of the strait contributed to a surge in international oil costs because Saudi Arabia had been relying on the Red Sea for oil exports after the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran successfully closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
Last week, the Yemeni authorities announced the begin of a new offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis.
Pro-government forces said they were shortly in a position to retake areas around Bab al-Mandab with the help of intense Saudi air strikes, but the Houthis denied dropping any territory.
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