A Houthi attack on the cargo ship Tihamah in the Bab el-Mandeb left four crew members and 2 rescuers dead. The strike added to widening disruption across key regional sea lanes, with traffic falling in both the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
Three Pakistanis and one Indonesian were killed after an Iran-backed Houthi attack on the Egyptian-owned cargo ship Tihamah in Yemen’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni transport ministry said on Tuesday, in the first reported deaths from a Houthi strike on shipping since the Iran war began on February 28.
The ministry said the crew lost control of the vessel after it came under attack. Two rescuers from Yemen’s anti-Houthi National Resistance Forces were also killed when Houthi fighters allegedly launched a second attack after rescue teams arrived, the Yemeni Coast Guard said.
Ten people were injured in the incident, including seven crew members, two Coast Guard personnel and one member of the National Resistance Forces.
The British navy-affiliated UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait had been hit by an unknown projectile. Maritime security firm Ambrey said the incident took place while the ship was anchored northeast of Perim Island.
Reuters identified the vessel as the Tihamah by comparing visuals of its deck and mast with archive imagery. Ship-tracking data showed the vessel near Murad, Yemen, on August 11, with Yemeni coast guard sources and government military officials confirming that a small cargo ship had been attacked by the Houthis.
The Houthis later said they had attacked a vessel carrying Saudi military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb, although they did not identify the ship. Saudi authorities did not immediately comment.
The attack came after the Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea on July 20, citing what they described as a Saudi siege of Yemen. Riyadh has denied that Yemen is under siege.
Ambrey said the Tihamah was not Saudi-owned or operated and had departed the Yemeni government-held port of Al Mokha on Saturday. LSEG data lists Egyptian companies as the vessel’s owners and managers.
The incident occurred amid a sharp decline in shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb and Red Sea. Traffic has fallen by more than 50% since the Houthis began targeting commercial shipping in 2023, while Kpler data showed an average of 32 vessels a day passed through the strait last week, down from around 50 before the latest Houthi blockade.
Separately, a Panama-flagged container ship, the Vela Nova, was reportedly struck by a missile off Pakistan while sailing towards the Gulf of Oman. Maritime security sources said the vessel was attacked, while The Wall Street Journal reported that a US helicopter fired a Hellfire missile at its rudder after it allegedly attempted to evade a US blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
US Central Command did not immediately comment on the report.
The reported attack on the Vela Nova came amid further disruption to regional shipping routes. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has also dropped sharply, with only six vessels passing through on Monday compared with a 10-day average of around 11 and prewar levels of roughly 130 to 140 vessels a day.
