The Iranian-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen said on Tuesday that it had targeted a Saudi oil tanker with missiles in what would be the latest attack in an emerging front of the war between the United States and Iran.
The skirmishes between the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen, and the Saudis risked igniting another conflict and infused more volatility into world energy supplies.
Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the attack on the latest tanker, the NCC Ghazal, which is listed by public maritime monitoring services as Saudi-flagged. The ship was last located five days ago, along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, by MarineTraffic, a ship-monitoring firm.
The Houthis said the tanker ignored repeated warnings and was forced to reverse course. They did not say if the ship was actually hit, or where the vessel was at the time.
It was at least the fourth oil tanker to be attacked since the militia announced that it would blockade shipping to and from Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. A monitoring group run by the British navy said, hours after the Houthi claim, that a tanker heard an explosion while transiting the Red Sea and all crew members were safe.
Shortly after the Houthis claimed the attack, the Saudi ministry of defense said that for the second consecutive day, it had destroyed several drones launched by Iran-aligned militias in Iraq aimed at Saudi oil facilities.
Since the Houthis announced their blockade earlier this month, each side has claimed attacks on the other. A Saudi-led military coalition has carried out airstrikes in Houthi-held territory for the first time in years. Separate from shipping attacks, the Houthis on Monday said they had targeted crude oil supplies and transport routes linking Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea hub of Yanbu. The kingdom’s defense ministry has not yet addressed that claim.
Since March, Iran has effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow portal to the Persian Gulf. That has forced Saudi Arabia to rely more heavily on exporting oil and gas through its Red Sea ports, hundreds of miles away.
The Houthis control most of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, where the southern part of the sea narrows to meet the Bab al-Mandab Strait — the link to the Indian Ocean and the shortest route to Asian markets. If ships cannot use that passage, they must instead go north through the Suez Canal, adding thousands of miles to some voyages.
In the last week, the Houthis claimed attacks on two tankers in the Red Sea, only one of which Saudi Arabia confirmed. Later, on Friday, the hull of a Saudi-owned vessel was damaged after being targeted in the Red Sea, Saudi officials said.
The Houthis form part of Iran’s broader “axis of resistance” alongside Iraqi factions, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. With Iranian backing, they fought a civil war against the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government of Yemen, taking over a swath of the country.
While the Saudis and the Houthis have been in a fragile stalemate since a cease-fire in 2022, tensions erupted this month when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of striking Yemen’s main international airport in Sanaa, the capital, in a dispute over an Iranian plane that tried to land there. The Houthis retaliated by attacking the Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, the first direct Houthi strike on Saudi soil since early 2022.
The Houthis have weaponized their ability to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea before.
During the war in Gaza, which began in late 2023, the Houthis attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea with drones, missiles and hijacking, trying to exert pressure on Israel and its allies. By some estimates, a Houthi blockade could affect more than 3 percent of the global oil market.
The latest Houthi threats come at a particularly difficult time, with Iran’s attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz prompting many shipowners and operators to decide it is too dangerous to use that waterway. The strait has been practically at a standstill, with the exception of a brief cease-fire, since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and the number of crossings has hit some of its lowest levels in months.
