Houthis hit Saudi tankers in Red Sea as US strikes Iran for 12th straight night

WASHINGTON: Tensions across the Middle East escalated further on Thursday as Yemen’s Houthi movement said it had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, while the United States carried out strikes in Iran for a 12th consecutive night.

Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA, citing an official source at the General Transport Authority, said an attack triggered a fire at the bow of the tanker Encelia, but all crew members were safe. Authorities had secured the vessel and its crew and had taken steps to safeguard the marine environment, describing the assault as a breach of international law. SPA did not identify the party responsible for the strike.

In a statement, the Houthis said they had targeted the Encelia and the Layla, alleging that both vessels had violated a naval blockade the group says it has imposed on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. The group said the attack involved ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. The same statement also said around 10 ships had been forced to turn back.

Earlier on Thursday, a maritime security source said the Encelia had issued a distress call over VHF radio, reporting that it had been struck by a missile and was on fire while operating at the outer port limits of Jizan in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea coast. British maritime risk-management company Vanguard separately said the Saudi-flagged Encelia was hit on its starboard side by an unidentified projectile about 130 kilometres southwest of Al Shuqaiq at 2000 GMT.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency also reported an incident in the same area, saying the master of a tanker had reported being struck by an unknown projectile that caused a fire on board, which the crew were attempting to contain. UKMTO said no casualties or environmental damage had been reported. It was not immediately clear whether the report referred to the Encelia, although the location and details matched Vanguard’s account. Vanguard said the Houthis had also claimed to have struck a second vessel, the Layla, though that remained unconfirmed.

Pakistan on Wednesday condemned what it described as continuing Houthi threats against Saudi Arabia and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, warning that it reserved the right to take all necessary measures in self-defence if its maritime interests came under attack in any hostile act. This was Pakistan’s strongest statement so far by any non-Arab country on the Houthi threats. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, is a key route for Pakistan’s trade and energy supplies, and a significant portion of the country’s oil imports passes through the Red Sea, although no Pakistani vessels have been reported stopped or targeted.

US strikes continue inside Iran

The US military said it had launched another round of attacks on Iran on the orders of President Donald Trump, extending American strikes to a 12th straight night. The US Central Command said the strikes targeted Iranian military assets including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites and air defence systems.

US forces struck Iranian military targets including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and air defense assets. The strikes further degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels.

Centcom also said American forces had hit dozens of military sites in Iran this month while reimposing a maritime blockade.

This month, American forces have targeted dozens of Iranian military sites on land while resuming a blockade against Iran at sea. As of today, Centcom has redirected nine commercial vessels and disabled one to prevent ships from entering or departing Iranian ports.

Before the latest Red Sea incident, Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant each time Iran fired at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Iran’s joint military command warned, according to Iranian state media, that if such threats against infrastructure were carried out, Iranian forces would strike regional oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and stop the export of even a single drop of oil.

Hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported an explosion on what they described as a mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz. They said one of three oil tankers caught fire and the other two turned back. The Guards also said the strait was under their control and was completely closed, adding that no tanker would be permitted to enter or leave without coordination with Iran.

The latest fighting comes after 12 straight days of attacks since a June ceasefire collapsed, with US strikes expanding from southern Iran into western and central parts of the country. The US military said it would continue efforts to further weaken Iran’s capacity to threaten shipping. Iranian media said US forces twice struck a military target in Bushehr on Thursday near Iran’s only operating commercial nuclear power reactor, making it the third attack there in two days. State television said two people were killed and 11 wounded in what a Khuzestan provincial official described as a US missile strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.