Houthi sea mine strikes cargo ship in southern Red Sea
SMA NEWS – Riyadh
A sea mine planted by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militias struck a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned television channel reported, without providing further details.
Al-Ekhbariya quoted the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting Houthis in Yemen since 2015.
The coalition did not identify the vessel or elaborate on the attack but said there were minor damages to the ship, with no casualties reported.
The Iran-backed Houthi militias continue to plant marine mines in the southern Red Sea and in the Bab Al-Mandab strait, which “is a serious threat to international shipping and global trade,” the coalition added.
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not respond to a request for comment.
The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, an information exchange overseen by the British Royal Navy in the region, did not immediately acknowledge the incident.
The report follows a series of assaults targeting Saudi energy infrastructure that has spurred concerns about ship safety in the Red Sea, a crucial transit zone for global shipping and energy supplies that largely had avoided the chaos of regional tensions involving the US and Iran last year.
Earlier this month, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said that it had recently detected and destroyed 171 sea mines dispatched into Red Sea waters by the Houthi militias.
Houthi military officials have not commented on the latest allegations.
