Iran-backed Houthi rebels released a video on Friday of what they described as targeted and damaged Saudi-backed vehicles. According to Associated Press Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel, aired footage it said shows damaged and burnt vehicles, Houthi fighters' deployment and Bab el-Mandeb Strait. In the video, Houthi fighters chanted and raised their rifles atop a military vehicle in Dhubab district, Taiz province, according to the tv channel. Houthi rebels captured the island of Mayun at the entrance of the Red Sea, a key alternative for shipping Saudi oil and other exports since the war in Iran started on February, followed by the closure of passage of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. About 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. It's especially important to Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. The escalating fighting threatens to end a fragile truce that had largely halted Yemen’s civil war since 2022. At stake are 40 million people in the Arab world’s poorest country. The conflict killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine. The surge in fighting in the past week has sent over 46,000 people fleeing, the U.N. migration agency said Friday. The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, when the rebels seized much of northern and central Yemen and the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year on the side of the government.
Source: Kanal13
