Ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis hit a cargo ship in the Red Sea, south of the port of Mocha, killing six and injuring ten. This is the first deadly attack by the Yemeni group against a vessel since the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government announced that three ballistic missiles struck the ship, causing a fire on board. Four crew members died in the initial attack, including three Pakistanis and one Indonesian. Yemeni coast guards later reported a second deadly shot, this time targeting rescuers who came to evacuate the vessel, causing three additional injuries.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, stating they targeted a ship carrying Saudi military equipment. The Sanaa government, meanwhile, describes the vessel as a Yemeni commercial cargo ship loaded with food supplies and denounces a deliberate escalation. Iranian media called it a ship “affiliated with Saudi Arabia.”
The cargo ship, named Tihamah, reportedly flies the Tanzanian flag according to maritime risk management company Vanguard, while the MarineTraffic platform associates it with an Egyptian shipowner. Images released by the semi-official Iranian agency Mehr, verified as authentic, show the damaged ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the entrance to the Red Sea, off the Yemeni coast.
This attack occurs amid heightened regional tensions. The Houthis resumed operations against maritime traffic last month, proclaiming a naval blockade of Saudi ports after the collapse of a multi-year truce in the Yemeni civil war. Meanwhile, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited.
The conflict has lasted more than five months, marked by a fragile ceasefire that was supposed to pave the way for a peace agreement. The Houthis control much of northwestern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to operate from Aden in the south of the country.
