ADEN — Four crew members were killed when Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi forces attacked an Egyptian-owned cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, while two Yemeni rescuers were also killed in a subsequent strike, according to Yemeni authorities.
Yemen’s Transport Ministry said three of the dead crew members were Pakistani nationals and one was Indonesian. The vessel, identified by Reuters as the Tihamah, lost control after the attack, according to the ministry.
The incident occurred near Perim Island, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, a major maritime route linking the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal. The British navy-affiliated United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that a vessel in the area had been struck by an unknown projectile.
Yemen’s Coast Guard said two rescuers from the anti-Houthi National Resistance Forces were killed when the Houthis attacked again after rescue personnel arrived at the scene. Ten other people were injured, including seven crew members, two Coast Guard personnel and one member of the National Resistance Forces, the Coast Guard said.
The Houthis later said they had attacked a ship carrying Saudi military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb, but did not identify the vessel. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the group's claim about the cargo.
Reuters said it independently confirmed the vessel as the Tihamah by comparing images of the ship with archival imagery and corroborating the location with satellite imagery and topographical mapping. Ship-tracking data placed the vessel near Murad, Yemen, on Tuesday, while Yemeni Coast Guard and military sources also identified the ship. Maritime security company Ambrey separately reported an attack on a vessel in the area.
The Tihamah is listed by LSEG data as being owned and managed by Egyptian companies. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
The attack represents the first reported fatal Houthi strike against commercial shipping since the war involving Iran began on Feb. 28, according to Reuters. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping had previously disrupted traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb and contributed to a sharp decline in vessels using the route.
Shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb and Red Sea has fallen by more than half from levels recorded during an earlier wave of Houthi attacks, with traffic declining further after the group announced a blockade last month, according to shipping-data provider Kpler cited by Reuters.
The latest attack leaves the status of the vessel and the remaining injured crew members under continued assessment by Yemeni authorities.
