Houthis strike two Saudi oil tankers in Red Sea blockade’s first enforcement

Yemen's Houthi movement attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday, marking the first enforcement of the group's declared maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia and escalating a conflict that has already choked two of the world's most important energy chokepoints.

The Attack

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced that the group's forces struck the tankers ENCELIA and LAYLA with a combination of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, claiming the vessels violated the Houthis' recently imposed naval blockade. Saree described the operation as "qualitative," saying it caused large fires on both vessels.الخلاصة نت

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency confirmed receiving a report that a tanker was struck by a projectile approximately 70 nautical miles from the Saudi coastal city of Al Shuqaiq, resulting in a fire onboard. UKMTO said the crew was attempting to extinguish the blaze, with no casualties or environmental damage reported at the time.الخلاصة نت

A Blockade Becomes Reality

The attacks came just days after the Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on Monday, July 20. Saree had warned that any Saudi shipping would face consequences under the group's "eye for an eye" policy, which he said was a response to what the Houthis describe as a Saudi blockade of Yemen.warsintheworld.com+1

That announcement had already rattled energy markets. On Tuesday, at least two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea after the Houthi threats, redirecting away from the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The strait handles roughly 4 million barrels per day of Saudi oil that had been rerouted away from the Strait of Hormuz, which has been intermittently disrupted by Iranian forces since the outbreak of the US-Iran war earlier this year.AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012+2

Widening Regional Conflict

The tanker strikes represent the first time the Houthis have followed through on their blockade threat against Saudi Arabia, a dramatic escalation of a conflict that had been dormant since a ceasefire took hold years ago. On July 16, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned that all Saudi oil facilities would become targets if Riyadh escalated its involvement in Yemen.Reuters

The Saudi-led coalition had earlier pledged "unprecedented determination and force" against Houthi threats, while Bloomberg reported that the coalition said it had taken steps to protect Red Sea shipping. The attacks compound an already severe disruption to global energy flows, with both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb now contested battlegrounds in the broader US-Iran conflict.Bloomberg+1