Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Wednesday it had struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea with a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, marking a sharp escalation of its campaign against shipping tied to the kingdom as the wider U.S.-Iran war reshapes security across the region.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had targeted two tankers, identified as the Encelia and the Laylia, accusing them of violating a naval blockade the group declared against Saudi Arabia earlier this week. The attack, he said, involved a mix of missile types and drones and caused fires aboard both vessels.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, which monitors shipping in the region, said separately that it had received a report of a vessel struck by an unidentified projectile roughly 70 nautical miles southwest of the Saudi port of Al Shuqaiq, sparking a fire that the crew was working to bring under control. No casualties or environmental damage have been reported. Saudi authorities and the tankers’ operators had not immediately confirmed the extent of any damage.
The strikes come two days after the Iran-aligned Houthis announced a maritime embargo on vessels linked to Saudi Arabia, warning that ships calling at the kingdom’s Red Sea ports could be targeted. The group has said the blockade is meant to pressure Riyadh into lifting restrictions on ports and the airport in Sanaa, the Houthi-held capital; Saudi Arabia has denied that it is besieging areas under Houthi control.
The attacks add a new front to a regional crisis already convulsed by the war between the United States and Iran, which has left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed to tanker traffic. Saudi Arabia had in recent months leaned more heavily on Red Sea export routes, including a pipeline to the Yanbu terminal, to move crude around the blocked strait — a workaround now also under threat.
The Houthis built a similar playbook of missile, drone and naval attacks on commercial shipping during the Gaza war, disrupting Red Sea trade for months before a ceasefire in Gaza took hold in October 2025. Wednesday’s claimed attack revives fears that a fragile calm in the corridor, one of the world’s most important for global trade and energy shipments, could unravel again.
