Dubai ~ A new airstrip is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show, likely the latest project by forces allied to those opposed to the country’s Iranian-backed government in Yemen.

The airstrip on Zuqar Island provides yet another link in a network of offshore bases in a region key to international shipping, where the Yemeni fighters already have attacked over 100 ships, sank four vessels and killed at least nine mariners during Israel’s war on Gaza.

It could give a military force the ability to conduct aerial surveillance over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the strategic, narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways off East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Still, it remains unclear what would trigger the airstrip to

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