Houthi attack on vessel kills 6 off Yemen coast
Yemeni authorities said six people were killed when Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, even as US forces separately fired on a ship they said was trying to break a blockade of Iran's ports.
Yemen's coast guard said the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces. Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to the Transportation Ministry of Yemen's internationally recognised government.
They are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping off Yemen in the latest bout of fighting in the country.
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, attention has increasingly turned to the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen's southern tip, an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.
The vessel strike came amid Houthi attacks on the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea and other areas of Yemen. Dozens of government troops and civilians have been killed in attacks since last week, according to the Yemeni military.
The strikes are part of a wider Houthi escalation against government forces in Yemen, oil facilities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia which backs the Yemeni government and Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
The attacks could reignite Yemen's civil war following a 2022 truce and open a new front in the wider Middle East conflict.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis' chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015. He said the Houthis remain open to negotiations, but that any settlement must include lifting the blockade.
The US military said on Tuesday, August 11, that its forces had fired on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that tried to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports, as President Donald Trump continues efforts to keep economic pressure on Iran.
US Central Command said the vessel had ignored warnings to stop, prompting an American helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova, disabling it. The statement did not say whether the ship's crew suffered any casualties.
Trump on Tuesday night insisted the US military has "total control" over the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iran continuing attacks on ships in the waterway that have largely impeded traffic there. "Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine," he told reporters after a trip to Ohio. "We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us," he said.
Central Command said it has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three non-compliant vessels and boarded two others. The US Navy currently has more than 15 warships, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship, stationed in the Arabian Sea.
Iran has refused to back down on demands that the US end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic and meet other conditions. Iran effectively closed the strait after Israel and the US attacked the country on February 28. Roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil supplies passed through the waterway before the war, and uncertainty over its future has kept energy prices a major focus in US politics ahead of November's midterm elections.
Five European nations on the UN Security Council called a meeting Tuesday, August 11, during which Britain's new UN Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh condemned escalating violence across the West Bank, calling settler attacks on Palestinian villages some alongside Israeli soldiers "appalling."
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory is already "underway brutally and relentlessly," and urged international action to chart a path for Palestinian self-determination and freedom.
Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon responded that "Israel condemns all violence against Israelis and Palestinians" and "does not tolerate extremism we confront it." Danon said extremist attacks by Israelis are declining and accused council members of ignoring rising attacks by Palestinians.
(Sourced through PTI)
