A Saudi-led military alliance foiled attacks against commercial vessels today that were carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Reuters reported.
The Iran-aligned Houthi militia had planned an attack deploying explosives-laden speedboats against merchant vessels. The military coalition had taken the necessary measures to protect merchant ships of the alliance, the coalition’s spokesman said.
The Houthi rebels had struck Saudi Arabia earlier on Thursday, carrying out a "special operation" inside Saudi waters during which a "military target was hit with a suitable weapon", according to the the Houthi propaganda channel Al Masirah.
The military move comes as the civil war in Yemen spills onto the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with Houthi escalating attacks against Saudi tankers plying in the Red Sea.
In late July, Houthi rebels launched a rocket attack on Saudi owner Bahri's VLCC that was carrying two million barrels of crude oil from Ras Tanura in eastern Saudi Arabia to Egypt.
This was preceded by a missile attack in early April on Bahri’s 303,00-dwt VLCC tanker Abqaiq.
