A double-tap attack by Houthi rebels on a vessel in the Bab Al Mandeb strait, which killed six people, has drawn international condemnation and raised questions about how far the rebels are willing to go to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and the international community for their own gain.
Some of the details of the attack remain murky, including the choice of target, the decision to kill rescuers and whether more similar incidents will take place in the Red Sea.
Here's what we know so far.
When did the attack happen?
Reports began to come in on Tuesday at around 5am local time in Yemen – initially of an attack on a “ferry” transporting civilians and used for commercial activity, announced by a spokesman for the Joint Forces on Yemen's western coast, Wadah Al Dobish.
The ship was identified as the Tanzanian-flagged Tihamah, a 63-metre multipurpose Egyptian-owned vessel built in 2024, which the Yemeni government said was “linked to providing commercial goods and food supplies to the Yemeni people”. It was headed to Mokha port, maritime tracking websites said.
Although there was little doubt about the perpetrators of the attack, the Houthis soon claimed responsibility for it, but said their target was a Saudi ship transporting military equipment.
The Yemeni government said the vessel was carrying 11 crew members from Pakistan and Indonesia. Mr Dobish said the vessel was licensed to transport passengers between Aden, Djibouti, Somalia and Socotra on round trips. Vessel-tracking data confirms that the ship has been to Djibouti and various ports in Yemen.
How and where did it happen?
Although it did not name the vessel, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) described an attack on a ship that was stationary in the Bab Al Mandeb strait, in Yemeni territorial waters, near Mokha, five nautical miles (9.2km) from the coast.
The attack took place in two rounds. The first strike, involving three ballistic missiles, prompted rescue teams from the government-run coastguard, in co-operation with the armed forces, to evacuate crew members and take the wounded to hospital. The initial death toll reported by the Yemeni government was four.
The attack caused a fire on board the ship and caused significant damage, the coastguard said. But the incident did not end there.
During the rescue operation, Houthi rebels launched a second attack, involving one ballistic missile, which caused additional deaths and injuries, the Yemeni Transport Ministry said. The death toll went up to six. They included four crew members, three Pakistanis and one Indonesian, and two Yemeni rescuers. Abkar Muhammad Mahmoud was one of the rescuers killed while performing his duties, Mr Dobish said.
The ministry condemned the “terrorist” attack and said attacking the Tihamah showed that the Houthis were expanding their threat to commercial vessels and civilian maritime infrastructure. Attacks on commercial shipping could disrupt supplies of food and consumer goods to millions of Yemenis and pose a broader threat to regional and international maritime security, it said.
Second attempt
Three hours after the ship was attacked with a ballistic missile, the coastguard thwarted yet another attempt by the Houthis. A “booby-trapped drone boat” tried to approach the Tihamah. “It was intercepted and destroyed by the armed forces and the coastguard”, a government statement said.
Two days earlier, a Houthi attack on Mokha port killed seven people. Last month, the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, in response to what they described as a Saudi siege. Riyadh denies having besieged Yemen.
Attacks on ships in the Bab Al Mandeb strait have increased uncertainty for shipping companies already hobbled by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
An average of 32 vessels per day passed through the Bab Al Mandeb strait last week, Kpler data showed. Before the blockade, the daily average was 50 vessels.
Centcom said that as of Tuesday, US forces had redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to breach the US blockade on Iranian ports, fired on three non-compliant vessels and boarded two.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary general of the International Maritime Organisation, stressed the necessity of protecting seafarers' lives. In a statement offering his condolences to the families of the victims, Mr Dominguez described the attack on the Tihamah as “troublesome”.
“These continued attacks on shipping only serve to escalate tensions and threaten global supply chains on which everyone depends,” he said.
