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Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) announced on July 28 that they had struck the Saudi-flagged tanker NCC Ghazal with ballistic missiles in the Red Sea.
In a statement, Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the tanker had “rejected warning calls” before it was targeted, and that the ship was “forced to retreat and return” after being hit. He added that the attack was carried out because the vessel had breached “the maritime navigation ban imposed on the Saudi enemy.”
The NCC Ghazal is a chemical and oil products tanker that typically operates under Bahri, the Saudi National Shipping Company.
According to data from MarineTraffic, the tanker’s Automatic Identification System, or AIS, signal has reportedly been offline for five days, with its last recorded position at Yanbu Industrial Port on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The Houthis said on July 20 that they were imposing a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in response to its siege on Yemen. The latest attack marked the second time the group has targeted a commercial vessel linked to the kingdom in the Red Sea since then. The first attack, which was on July 23, targeted two tankers off the Saudi coast, setting one of them ablaze.
In addition to the strikes against shipping, the Houthis targeted multiple key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia in two separate attacks on July 24 and 27, causing major destruction.
The Houthis’ recent operations have without a doubt dealt a blow to the Saudi oil sector, although the exact scale of the impact remains unclear.
Saudi Arabia is unlikely to respond to the latest attack, as its previous attempt to do so resulted in a major escalation by the Houthis.
President Donald Trump has already hinted that the United States could get involved in Yemen again, but taking into account the failure of a major American operation that targeted the Houthis last year, diplomacy may be the only way out from the current escalation. The group’s demand is clear, and that’s to end the Saudi blockade on Yemen.
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