Three crew members killed in Houthi attack on commercial vessel off Yemen

Sanaa: Three crew members were reportedly killed on Tuesday after Yemen’s Houthi group attacked a commercial vessel passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a pro-government Yemeni media outlet stated.

Initial information indicated that the attack killed two Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian on the ship, Aljoumhouriya TV of the pro-government National Resistance Forces reported.

The report did not identify the vessel or specify the weapon used in the attack. No information was immediately available on the extent of damage to the ship or the condition of the remaining crew.

The Houthis have yet to comment on the reported attack, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The incident comes amid a recent Houthi escalation of attacks on commercial shipping in waters off Yemen, as well as missile and drone strikes against government-held areas and targets in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

On July 20, the Houthis announced a ban on Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea, citing what they described as a Saudi blockade of Houthi-held areas.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government said Monday it will respond to continued Houthi attacks, as an intensifying wave of missile and drone strikes across government-held areas raises the risk of large-scale fighting.

Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), said government forces are better prepared to confront the latest escalation and will no longer allow the Houthis to “dictate” the timing and scope of military confrontations, according to the government-run Saba news agency.

During a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh with ambassadors of countries supporting Yemen’s political process, al-Alimi said the government had sought to preserve the relative calm that followed the 2022 UN-brokered truce but will not allow its commitment to peace to provide the Houthis with an opportunity to launch attacks without consequences.

“The state did not initiate this escalation, nor did it seek it,” al-Alimi was quoted as saying by Saba.

He said the recent attacks showed that the military and political situation has changed, stressing that strikes on Marib, Hadramout and the western coast will no longer go “without cost.”

His remarks came after days of intensified Houthi attacks on government forces and infrastructure in the oil-rich provinces of Marib, Hadramout and Shabwa, as well as the western coastal city of Mocha.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

IANS