Gulf States Accuse Houthis of Targeting Oil Tankers to Intensify Fuel Crisis

The Saudi-led coalition of Gulf Arab states fighting the Iran-backed Houthi insurgency in Yemen accused the Houthis on Wednesday of targeting oil tankers with explosive-laden boats in an effort to make the worldwide fuel crisis even worse.

The Saudi military alliance, which calls itself the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said on Wednesday it was able to intercept and destroy two Houthi bomb boats.

It claimed the Houthis launched the boats from the vicinity of the port city Hodeidah before they could attack oil tankers passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

“The terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia escalated its hostile, cross-border attacks towards the Kingdom last night and earlier this morning, targeting civilian objects and economic installations in a deliberate, systematic manner,” coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said.

The coalition released video of the attacks:

#التحالف ينشر فيديو لتدمير زورقين مفخخين وإحباط عملية هجوم جنوب البحر الأحمر.#واس_عام pic.twitter.com/B5rHgzfhxn

— واس العام (@SPAregions) March 23, 2022

The government of Bahrain condemned the thwarted Houthi boat attack on Thursday, denouncing it as a “desperate attempt to threaten the security of maritime navigation and global trade lines.”

Saudi state television has reported on the failed boat attack, but there was “no immediate confirmation from the Houthis,” and there does not appear to be any independent reporting on the incident, Reuters noted.

Yemeni military forces claim to have intercepted a very similar attack in late February, once again involving two explosive-laden boats launched into the Red Sea, in that case from the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah.

The Houthis launched a wave of attacks against civilian oil targets in Saudi Arabia last weekend, using cruise missiles and drones. The damage was fairly minor and quickly contained, but the Saudi government warned escalating Houthi attacks could jeopardize the kingdom’s ability to supply oil to the tight global market during the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A senior Yemeni military officer, Brig. Gen. Thabet Gawas, was killed along with three members of his entourage by a car bomb in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday. The Yemeni defense ministry denounced the “cowardly attack carried out by several terrorist elements.”

The ministry did not name the alleged perpetrators of the attack, but Gawas was noted for his determined and effective resistance against the Houthi insurgency.

The Houthis were classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration, but their terrorist designation was lifted by President Joe Biden as one of his first acts in office last year.