Houthis say attacked Saudi tanker

DUBAI

Hundreds of armed protesters brandish their weapons, placards and flags during a demonstration against the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa on July 31, 2026. (AFP)

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said on Aug. 5 that they attacked a Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu, in the Red Sea, as the rebels pressed on with their declared maritime blockade of the kingdom.

This was the eighth Saudi oil tanker targeted since the start of the blockade on July 22, a Houthi military spokesman said.

The group “successfully targeted the Saudi oil tanker ‘Wafa’ in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with a number of ballistic missiles,” Yahya Saree said in a video statement.

The Houthis declared they will escalate attacks in the northern Red Sea because Saudi Arabia is diverting its oil tankers there from the south in response to their blockade.

The blockade has threatened top oil exporter Saudi Arabia’s ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the kingdom’s only other maritime route.

Saree said that the group’s blockade had pushed Saudi Arabia to divert “its oil tankers towards the northern Red Sea.”

So the group will now “escalate in targeting Saudi oil tankers in the northern Red Sea to close all access points and prevent their passage.”

With Iran’s closure of Hormuz, the Saudi port of Yanbu on the Red Sea became the main exit point for Saudi oil, with the Bab al-Mandeb Strait turning into a crucial transit route for crude.