Yemen's Houthis reach strategic island at mouth of vital shipping lane

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Friday reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters, potentially tightening ‌their grip on one of the world's vital shipping routes and further increasing the threat to energy markets in the widening Middle East war.
Earlier, two sources from the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised Yemeni government said its forces had withdrawn from Perim and that the Houthis had also taken the mainland Red Sea coastal town of Dhubab, which faces the island.

Yemeni government forces, meanwhile, indicated they would try to retake areas captured by the Houthi militants in their lightning offensive this week along the Red Sea coastline.
They announced they would deploy weapons and aircraft to eliminate any movement of the "terrorist" Houthi militias in strategic areas, including the road leading to the coastal city of Mocha, which the ​militant group captured on Thursday along with the Red Sea islands of Hanish.

Fighting between the Houthis and the Yemeni government forces has intensified in ‌recent days, ⁠with the Iran-aligned group shifting its focus to control over Yemen's long coastline instead of just the north and the country's most populous areas.