Iran-Backed Houthis Kill Four Crew, Two Yemeni Rescuers in Bab El-Mandeb Attack

Iran-backed Houthis attacked shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, killing four crew members aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah and also killing two Yemeni rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group, Yemen's transport ministry and Yemen's Coast Guard said.

“Four crew members were killed in an attack by Iran-backed Houthis on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait”

Al-Monitor

In the same day’s escalation, the U.S. military said it struck a Panama-flagged container ship, with U.S. Central Command saying it "disabled the steering gear of Panama-flagged Vela Nova" as the vessel attempted to transit the Gulf of Oman toward an Iranian port.

Al-Monitor

Reuters reported that the incident occurred while the ship was at anchor northeast of Perim Island, Yemen, and that ship-tracking data showed the vessel Tihamah near Murad, Yemen, on August 11.

The Reuters account also said the Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea on July 20 in response to what they described as a Saudi siege, while Riyadh denies that Yemen is under siege.

Yemeni authorities said the Bab el-Mandeb attack killed six people, with Yemen's coast guard saying the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces, while Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to Yemen's Transportation Ministry.

The Express Tribune and CBC both put the death toll at six, but the Express Tribune specified that the dead included four crew members—three Pakistanis and one Indonesian—and two members of the Yemeni armed forces’ 2nd Naval Brigade, while CBC said the dead included four crew members and two members of the National Resistance Forces.

Anadolu Ajansı

The Times of Israel described the same attack as killing four crew members and two members of the rescue forces, and it said UK Maritime Trade Operations informed it that a cargo vessel off the coast of al-Mokha, Yemen, had been hit by an unknown projectile, resulting in casualties.

In a separate but related thread, the U.S. strike in the Gulf of Oman was described as involving two Hellfire missiles, with U.S. Central Command saying "A US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova’s engine room" after the civilian crew ignored repeated warnings.

Reuters said shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and Red Sea has fallen by more than 50% since an earlier wave of Houthi attacks on shipping from 2023 to 2025, and it added that traffic fell further since the Houthis announced their blockade last month, with an average of 32 ships per day passing through the strait last week.

“with an average of 32 ships per day passing through the strait last week”

Al-Monitor

In the same Reuters account, the Strait of Hormuz was described as even more disrupted, with just six ships passing through on Monday, down from a 10-day average of about 11 and prewar levels of some 130 to 140.

The U.S. Central Command said it has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three non-compliant vessels, and boarded two, while the Reuters account said the ship Vela Nova was believed to have been hit some 71 nautical miles off Pakistan’s coast.

On the diplomatic side, PBS reported that Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis' chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015, and he said the Houthis are open for negotiations but any settlement must include lifting the blockade.