A senior Saudi official said Friday that the Houthis have lost control of the Bab el Mandeb Strait in Yemen, an assertion that was denied by the Iran-backed group, as Yemeni government forces pressed a counteroffensive to retake territory along the Red Sea coast.

In a post to X on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Al-Jaber, wrote, “The Bab al-Mandeb has been cleansed of the remnants of the terrorist Houthi militia.” 

In a post responding to the ambassador, Houthi spokesperson Ameen Hayyan denied such gains, saying that the “Bab al-Mandeb is pure from the filth of the filthy Saudi entity.”

In a separate post to X, Hayyan wrote that the Houthis were able to "confront and repel the enemy Saudi mobilizations that attempted to advance from the direction of Lahij toward Bab al-Mandeb.” Hayyan said that the forces attempting to advance were targeted by the Houthis with a "large number of ballistic missiles, artillery support, and heavy weapons, resulting in the destruction of more than 22 armored vehicles and the killing and wounding of dozens, including a number of commanders.”