Three killed in suspected attack by Iran-backed Houthis on ship in Red Sea, sources say
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Houthis killed three crew members (two Pakistanis and one Indonesian) aboard the Egyptian-owned cargo ship Tihamah in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, marking the first fatalities from a Houthi strike on shipping since the Iran war began on February 28.
- The Tihamah was hit by an unknown projectile while at anchor northeast of Perim Island, Yemen, having sailed from Salalah, Oman via Djibouti; the Houthis have not claimed the attack and LSEG-listed Egyptian owners did not respond to requests for comment.
- Houthi attacks in the region trace to a maritime embargo the group declared against Saudi Arabia on July 20 in response to what it called a Saudi siege — a claim Riyadh denies — yet the Tihamah was not Saudi-owned or operated, per security firm Ambrey.
- The U.S. military is suspected, per the Wall Street Journal, of striking the Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova with a Hellfire missile fired at its rudder by a U.S. helicopter off Pakistan — the 12th vessel attacked by U.S. forces since the April blockade and the third since its July 14 reimposition.
- Red Sea shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait has fallen more than 50% since the 2023-25 wave of attacks, dropping further from an average of 50 ships per day to just 32 last week after the Houthi blockade, according to Kpler data.
- Strait of Hormuz traffic collapsed to just six ships on Monday, down from a 10-day average of about 11 and pre-war levels of 130-140 daily transits.
Why it matters: The Tihamah deaths mark the first Houthi-caused shipping fatalities since the Iran war began February 28, raising the human cost of a maritime conflict that is simultaneously halving Bab el-Mandeb traffic (50 to 32 ships/day) and crushing Hormuz transits (130-140 pre-war to 6 on Monday). The convergence of Houthi and U.S. blockade pressure on two of the world's most critical oil corridors is collapsing shipping capacity on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula at once.
Ask SkimNews
