Yemen Shia fighters take full control of strategic port city

Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement’s Ansarullah fighters have taken full control of the country’s second-largest port city of Hudaydah on the Red Sea.

According to reports on Wednesday, Ansarullah fighters managed to gain full control of the strategic port of Hudaydah, which they had entered earlier in October.

The Yemeni army soldiers stationed in Hudaydah showed no resistance as the Shia fighters tightened their grip on the strategic port.

The Ansarullah revolutionaries also captured several government offices, including the state-owned SAFER oil and gas company, in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on Wednesday.

Ansarullah’s recent gains pose a serious challenge to the authority of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has for long destabilized the impoverished Arab country.

Over the past months, al-Qaeda militants have frequently carried out attacks on Yemen’s security forces and have also been locked in deadly battles with Ansarullah fighters.

Yemen’s central government has so far failed to confront the terrorist threats. Ansarullah fighters, however, have intervened to fill the vacuum and driven al-Qaeda militants out of many areas in the country.

The Shia revolutionaries also played a major role in the ouster of Yemen’s former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2012.