ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Six people were killed and several others injured in an attack carried out by the Iran-backed Ansarullah movement in Yemen, better known as the Houthis, in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni coast guard said Tuesday.
While the Houthis did not claim the assault, they defended their operations in the Red Sea as a "legitimate response" to alleged attacks on their positions by Saudi Arabia and the Aden-based internationally recognized government (IRG) in Yemen, including a recent strike on Sana'a airport.
The Yemeni coast guard said it “evacuated the six deceased and five injured” who were on board the Tihama commercial vessel, noting that three of those killed were Pakistani, one was Indonesian, and the rest were Yemeni coast guard and naval forces personnel.
The evacuation came after "repeated missile attacks by the Houthi militia on Tuesday at 9:30 am [local time], while the ship was sailing in the Bab al-Mandab Strait," the coast guard said in a statement.
The remarks came shortly after Aden's transport ministry "condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist crime" committed by the Houthis against the "Yemeni commercial ship, Tihama, with three consecutive ballistic missile strikes while it was sailing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait."
"This criminal attack adds to the record of Houthi violations that threaten the security and safety of maritime navigation and international trade," the ministry said, noting that the ship "was carrying food supplies."
It further accused the Iran-backed Yemeni group of adopting "an escalation strategy" aimed at "expanding its threats to include ports, civilian facilities in liberated areas [out of Houthi control], and incoming commercial ships” through the Red Sea.
The incident comes amid a broader escalation that began in mid-July, when the Houthis launched a "ballistic" missile attack on Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, claiming it was in response to the Aden-based IRG's airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport's runway - reportedly aimed at preventing a flight from Iran carrying a Houthi delegation from landing.
The Houthis, in the same period, declared a "maritime embargo" against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, in response to what they described as a 12-year siege by Riyadh "on our ports and airports by land, sea, and air" since the onset of the Yemen war - a claim Saudi Arabia has categorically denied.
As the Iran-backed group controls Yemen's western coastline, the blockade primarily targets the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. It comes at a time when Riyadh's alternative Gulf routes are also facing disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz, due to maritime restrictions imposed by the Houthis' Iranian allies, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Importantly, Houthi official spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam on Tuesday pointed to continued "engagements and meetings with various regional and international parties to clarify our positions and affirm that the operations carried out by our armed forces against Saudi vessels ... come within the framework of our legitimate response to the attacks being inflicted upon our Yemeni people - particularly the brutal attack on Sana'a airport."
Nonetheless, Abdulsalam subtly signaled openness to talks, noting that "any forthcoming track must result in achieving the legitimate rights of the Yemeni people," including "the opening of airports and ports, the payment of salaries, and the resumption of oil and gas exports, with revenues directed toward services for the Yemeni people at large," he said.
