Saudi-backed militia announced on Sunday they were withdrawing from the area near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The announcement marked the end of a six-week counteroffensive to reclaim the coast near the mouth of the Red Sea, seized by Ansarallah in September in a lightning advance that squeezed oil exports.
Sunday’s announcement of retreat raises the prospect of new Ansarallah advances towards Aden, and underscores the predicament faced by Saudi Arabia in trying to stop Ansarallah’s drone and missile attacks on the kingdom.
The Saudi-backed militia have been based in Aden on the southern coast since 2015 after Ansarallah seized the capital Sanaa.
The gains by Ansarallah, also known as the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), and attacks on Saudi Arabia and its commercial ships in the Red Sea in recent months have strengthened the position of Iran in the wider Middle East conflict launched by the United States and Israel in February, Reuters said.
Ansarallah forces made rapid gains to capture the coast along the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that controls access to it, while the militia in Taiz, the country’s third-biggest city, in mountains above the approach to Aden.
A Saudi-backed offensive last month retook some positions around the strait, notably Dhubab, but failed to drive the YAF entirely away from the area or to retake the city of al-Mocha further up the coast.
Ansarallah forces have responded by intensifying drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, grounding flights with strikes on its main airports as well as setting global energy markets on edge by targeting energy facilities.
They also made significant advances in the highland areas north of Aden, cutting off Taiz in early October and putting increased pressure on the disparate Saudi-backed militia.
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