The islands were controlled by Yemeni militias loyal to Saleh and used by the Houthis to store weapons

Arab coalition forces have captured a Yemeni Red Sea archipelago used by Iran-allied Houthi militias for storing and smuggling weapons into Yemen, the Saudi-led alliance and local fishermen said on Thursday.

The Saudi-led coalition has been trying to dislodge the Houthis and forces loyal to their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, from areas captured since September last year and to restore President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

The Houthis control most of the former north Yemen from Taiz in the south to Saada in the north, giving them control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

The coalition said its forces “cleansed Greater Hanish”, the biggest island in the archipelago in the Red Sea’s main shipping lanes, Saudi state television said.

The islands, it said, were controlled by Yemeni militias loyal to Saleh and used by the Houthis to store weapons and smuggle them into Hodeida, Yemen’s main Red Sea port.

The archipelago was the subject of a territorial dispute between Yemen and Eritrea, which seized the archipelago in the 1990s, until a London-based international arbitration court granted Yemen sovereignty in 1998.

Related articles across the web

• Dozens trapped as Saudi airstrikes target underground prison
• Yemen's exiled president returns to war-torn country
• Saudi-led coalition strikes kill at least 50 in Yemen
• Yemen: Houthis mark one-year anniversary of seizing capital
• Yemen: more airstrikes hit captial as president returns from exile
• Dozens dead after suicide bombing at mosque in Yemen's capital
• Saudi-led coalition strikes kill at least 50 in Yemen
• Saudi-led coalition strikes kill at least 50 in Yemen
• US Hostage Freed From Yemen Returns To Michigan
• Saudi-led coalition strikes kill at least 50 in Yemen