Report: Houthis Target Commercial Ships, Attacks Thwarted

The suspension of attacks on merchant vessels by the Houthi movement seems to be over as another attempted attack is being reported in the Saudi waters.

According to a spokesperson of the Saudi-led military coalition, cited by Reuters, the coalition thwarted attacks on merchant vessels with explosives-laden speedboats deployed by the Houthi forces on Thursday, August 23.

However, the Houthis claim that they had targeted a military vessel with a missile.

The attack is being reported two weeks after the Houthi movement announced it would suspend Red Sea attacks for two weeks as a sign of good will and support to the peace efforts.

The suspension allowed Saudi Arabian oil major Saudi Aramco to resume oil shipments through Bab-El-Mandeb Strait that had been halted at the end of July after the attacks on two very large crude oil tankers.

Two VLCCs, operated by the Saudi National Shipping Company (Bahri), were targeted while carrying Saudi Aramco’s crude oil in the Red Sea on July 25. One of the ships suffered minor damage, Bahri said at the time.

End of the armed conflict in Yemen is long overdue as it has been ongoing since 2015.

The three -year conflict has pushed the country into a dire humanitarian crisis, leaving 2 million people displaced from their homes; 8.4 million people in need of fuel supplies and, the worst cholera outbreak in the world that occurred in 2017, with 1.1 million cases, the U.N. data shows.

World Maritime News Staff