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Claimed assaults come days after Houthis introduced naval embargo on Saudi vessels.
Printed On 22 Jul 2026
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have claimed an assault on two Saudi oil tankers transiting by the Purple Sea.
“We focused two Saudi oil tankers, named ENCELA and LAYLIA, for his or her violation of the blockade choice issued by the armed forces,” Houthi navy spokesperson Yahya Saree mentioned on Wednesday.
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Saree added that the assaults had been carried out, “utilizing various ballistic and cruise missiles, in addition to drones”.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the claims, however the UK Maritime Commerce Operations (UKMTO) mentioned it had obtained reports {that a} tanker has been struck.
“The grasp of a tanker stories being struck by an unknown projectile which has induced a fireplace onboard that the crew are at present preventing,” UKMTO, which screens transport within the area, mentioned.
Yemen’s Houthi motion, which has fought the Yemeni authorities and a Saudi-led coalition that backs it for greater than a decade, had imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20. That adopted among the worst violence Yemen had seen for 4 years, after the Yemeni authorities bombed Houthi-controlled Sanaa Airport to cease an Iranian aircraft from touchdown.
Saudi Arabia has rejected claims by the Houthis that Riyadh was imposing a siege on the Yemeni folks, and the group’s critics level out that they’ve rejected a proposal from Jordan to renew flights between Amman and Sanaa.
Amid the disruption in transport by the Strait of Hormuz in the course of the US-Israel war on Iran, Saudi Arabia has been trying to facilitate oil movement by alternative routes by the Purple Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. However that route is now underneath menace from the Houthis.
The Houthis disrupted international commerce once they started attacking ships across the Bab al-Mandeb Strait following the launch of Israel’s genocidal struggle on Gaza in October 2023. The assaults ended with the announcement of a “ceasefire” in Gaza in October 2025.
The Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint connecting the Purple Sea to the Gulf of Aden is likely one of the world’s most essential transport routes, together with for oil exports worldwide.
Between Yemen to the northeast and Djibouti and Eritrea within the Horn of Africa to the southwest, the strait is simply 29km (18 miles) vast at its narrowest level, limiting site visitors to 2 channels for inbound and outbound vessels utilizing the Suez Canal.
In 2024, about 4.1 billion barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum merchandise handed by the strait – about 5 % of the worldwide whole.
With the Strait of Hormuz successfully closed since Israel and the USA launched their struggle on Iran in late February, shutting down Bab al-Mandeb as nicely may block 25 % of the world’s oil and fuel provide.
