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Atleast six people were killed in a "double-tap" missile strike on a commercial vessel in the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni government said, blaming Iran-backed Houthi rebels for the attack, CNN reported.
According to the Ministry of Transport of Yemen's internationally recognised government, the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Tihamah, a small cargo ship transporting food. The strikes sparked a fire that killed four crew members, three Pakistanis and one Indonesian and injured four other crew members and one rescue worker, the ministry said, CNN reported. It added that the Houthis struck the vessel a second time after a search and rescue operation began, in what it described as an attempt to "endanger the lives of all onboard, including the rescue teams". The Yemeni Coast Guard later confirmed that two of the dead were rescue workers. There was initial confusion over the ship's ownership. Yemeni officials and marine intelligence group Marisks first reported a Saudi-owned vessel was hit. However, data from MarineTraffic shows the Tihamah is sailing under the Tanzanian flag and is owned by companies registered in Egypt and Yemen. Meanwhile, the newly announced Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia appears to have failed its first major test after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen struck an Aramco refinery in Jazan, with the newly formed alliance offering no visible military response or threat to the attack, said an analysis written in the Jerusalem Post. The fire at the Aramco refinery in Jazan began on Sunday morning, with Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree stating that the group had targeted the facility with a drone in retaliation for Saudi drone operations over Saada and Hajjah governorates. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry later confirmed the fire and said it had been extinguished. (ANI)
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