These were the eighth and ninth Saudi oil tankers targeted since the start of the blockade Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said on Wednesday that they attacked two Saudi oil tankers, as the rebels pressed on with their maritime blockade of the kingdom. These were the eighth and ninth Saudi oil tankers targeted since the start of the blockade last month, according to figures given by a Houthi military spokesman. Saudi authorities had no immediate comment on the report. The group “successfully targeted the Saudi oil tanker Wafa in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with a number of ballistic missiles,” Yahya Saree said, in a video statement. In a later statement, Saree said the rebels targeted the “Saudi oil tanker Daisy in the Gulf of Aden with a ballistic missile”, referring to the waterway that connects to the Red Sea. The Houthis declared they will escalate attacks in the northern Red Sea because Saudi Arabia is diverting its oil tankers there from the south in response to their blockade. The blockade has threatened top oil exporter Saudi Arabia’s ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the [...]
