ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saturday seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline after they had expelled Saudi-backed forces from several western districts in a major offensive, including areas around the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait.

A local official with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said Friday that the Houthis had “completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island.”

The development follows an unprecedented Houthi offensive in recent days in which the rebels have seized the vast majority of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline in a major rout of Saudi-backed forces.

A government military official later said the group had also seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, the last two islands in the narrow waterway not under their control, as well as the neighboring Red Sea coastline, saying, “Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen.”

The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait “is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels.”

Riyadh has relied on the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait to circumvent Iranian restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz. 

About 12 percent of global goods are typically shipped through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

On Friday, the Yemeni rebels said in a statement that they had expelled “the Saudi enemy's buildups and troops from six districts in the governorates of Taiz and Hodeidah, covering a total area of ​​5,400 square kilometers.”

Having enjoyed a tentative peace for years following a UN-backed truce in Yemen's decade-long civil war, tensions between Riyadh and the Iran-backed Houthis flared following an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport that prevented an Iranian plane from landing in mid-July.

Despite Yemen's anti-Houthi government claiming the attack, the rebel group immediately accused Saudi Arabia of perpetrating the attack, striking a Saudi airport in retaliation and announcing a maritime blockade of the country.

Saudi Arabia also said Friday that it had shut down its major cross-country East-West oil pipeline as a “precautionary measure” following attacks the previous day without initially saying who carried them out.

Later, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said several drones launched from Iraq targeted its East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Madina regions, causing injuries and “some damage.”

The pipeline serves as an important energy route, allowing Riyadh to export up to 7 million barrels of crude oil per day amid the maritime restrictions Iran has imposed on the Strait of Hormuz.

The ministry said Riyadh “has chosen not to respond at this stage” following requests from Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to “allow” Baghdad to take necessary measures “to prevent attacks launched from Iraqi territory against the Kingdom and neighboring countries.”

In a statement early Saturday, the Iraqi government said Zaidi ordered an investigation into the operations command in Maysan province and dismissed its commander after authorities determined that attacks targeting Saudi Arabia had been launched from a site in the province.

In recent months, Riyadh has increasingly voiced its frustration with a number of drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure that it has accused of being orchestrated by Iran-aligned Iraqi armed factions, culminating in joint US-Saudi airstrikes across large swaths of Iraq in late July that killed at least 20 militia fighters.