‘Coalition foils Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Saudi-led military coalition foiled attacks by explosives-laden speedboats deployed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement against commercial vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red Sea, Saudi and Emirati state media said on Wednesday.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) state news agency WAM reported that the  UAE coalition forces had destroyed two boats “which were threatening a commercial oil tanker” in the Red Sea. Two other Houthi boats escaped, it added.

Later Saudi state news channel Al Ekhbariya said that remote-controlled speedboats rigged with explosives had tried to attack three commercial vessels being escorted by two coalition warships, but that coalition forces had foiled the attack and destroyed three speedboats.

Neither the Houthis nor a coalition spokesman could immediately be reached for comment.

The Houthis, who are aligned with the Middle East’s pre-eminent Shiite power Iran, have fired missiles into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition has carried out a campaign of thousands of air strikes and restricted imports into Yemen, worsening what the United Nations says is potentially the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.