CAIRO, July 28 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis said they fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, stepping up enforcement of a newly declared maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.
The Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the vessel had breached the blockade, ignored warning calls and was forced to change course.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Tuesday that the master of a tanker had reported hearing an explosion while transiting the southern Red Sea.
UKMTO said the crew and vessel were safe and that no environmental damage had been reported. Reuters could not immediately verify whether the advisory was related to the incident reported by the Houthis.
The Houthis said on July 20 they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea in response to what they described as a Saudi siege on Yemen, an allegation Riyadh has denied.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it carried out strikes on Houthi military sites in Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate on Friday, saying the sites were used to threaten commercial shipping.
The Houthis subsequently fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday and Saudi-backed forces bombed the Houthis, as the war in the Gulf that has disrupted global supplies extended to a second front.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Muhammad Al GebalyEditing by David Goodman and Deepa Babington)
