Oil tanker comes under rocket attack in Bab al-Mandeb

By Ahmed al-Masri

DOHA, Qatar

An oil tanker came under rocket attack while passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, a Saudi-led military coalition announced Thursday.

On Wednesday, the tanker -- sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands -- was targeted by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) fired from an unidentified vessel, according to a coalition statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

“The attackers fired three RPGs at the tanker as it passed by Yemen’s Island of Mayyun,” the statement read.

“None of the ship's crew were hurt and the tanker safely continued its voyage into the Red Sea,” it added.

Without explicitly blaming Yemen’s Shia Houthi militia for the attack, the coalition went on to warn that “the ongoing smuggling of arms and ammunition into Yemeni territory by the Houthis threatens the security of local navigation”.

The Houthis, for their part, have yet to comment on the reported attack.

The strategic Bab al-Mandeb waterway links the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. An estimated 7 percent of international maritime traffic traverses the waterway every year.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies -- who accuse Shia Iran of backing the Houthis -- launched a massive campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains in Yemen and shoring up the country’s pro-Saudi government.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict to date.