Yemeni forces have launched attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as part of the enforcement of the new maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, according to an announcement from Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the military wing of Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting two Saudi oil tankers that violated the blockade imposed by the Armed Forces in the Red Sea,” Saree said, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.
Saree identified the tankers that were targeted as the Encelia and the Layla. A maritime security source told Reuters that the Encelia transmitted a distress call via VHF, reporting it had been struck by a missile while operating near the Saudi Red Sea port of Jizan and was on fire.
Saree said that the attacks were carried out with a “number of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones.” He also claimed that the “Yemeni Armed Forces forced approximately ten ships to retreat and return” since the blockade started on Monday, a move that came one week after Saudi Arabia bombed the Sanaa International Airport in Yemen.
President Trump on Tuesday suggested that he could restart a bombing campaign he waged against Ansar Allah last year, which failed to end the Yemeni blockade of Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and Yemeni drone and missile attacks targeting Israel in response to its genocidal war in Gaza.
Trump reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the green light to bomb the Sanaa airport, an attack that was carried out to prevent a plane from Iran that was carrying a delegation of Yemeni officials who attended the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
