Yemen’s Houthis reportedly attacked two Saudi oil tankers Articles of Controversy

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The alleged threats come days after the Houthis announced a naval blockade on Saudi vessels.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

“We targeted two Saudi oil tankers, named ENCELA and LAYLIA, for violating a ban by the military,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday.

Saree added that the attacks were carried out, “using several ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”, and caused a fire on the ship.

The Houthis also forced “about ten ships… to abandon their routes, and return”, Saree said.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the allegations, but the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received them. reports that the tank has been hit.

“The owner of the tank is said to have been hit by an unknown projectile which has caused a fire which the crew is fighting,” UKMTO, which oversees logistics in the area, said.

Yemen’s Houthi group, which has fought the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition that backs it for more than a decade, imposed the law. blockade at sea on Saudi Arabia on July 20. This followed some of the worst violence in Yemen in four years, after the Yemeni government bombed the Houthi-controlled Sanaa Airport to stop an Iranian airliner from landing.

Saudi Arabia has rejected claims by the Houthis that Riyadh wants to encircle the Yemeni population, and the group’s opponents point out that it has rejected a request from Jordan to resume flights between Amman and Sanaa.

Between the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israel War on IranSaudi Arabia has been trying to keep oil flowing other ways across the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. But that route is now under threat from the Houthis.

The Houthis disrupted international trade when they started attack ships around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait following the launch of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023. The attacks ended with the announcement of a “ceasefire” in Gaza in October 2025.

The Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden is one of the most important shipping routes, including the world’s oil shipments.

Between Yemen in the northeast and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa in the southwest, the road is 29km (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, reducing the volume of two canals for ships entering and leaving using the Suez Canal.

In 2024, about 4.1 billion barrels of crude and refined oil passed through the river – about 5 percent of the global total.

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since Israel and the United States launched their war on Iran at the end of February, closing the Bab al-Mandeb and potentially blocking 25 percent of the world’s oil and gas.