A week after Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, the Iranian-backed terrorist group is ramping up attacks on the kingdom’s energy infrastructure. The Islamic terrorist group reportedly fired multiple ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker. “Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday that they had fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker, accusing the vessel of violating what they described as their maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and ignoring warning calls,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
This marks the second major attack of its kind in less than a week. Last Wednesday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for attacking two Saudi-owned oil tankers, releasing video footage showing shipments engulfed in flames.
Saudi Arabia’s air defenses, backed by the U.S. and Western allies, continue to thwart Houthi drone attacks. “Saudi Arabia said Monday it had intercepted a “number of drones” that Iran-backed militias in Iraq had launched at the kingdom’s oil facilities,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Riyadh demanded in a statement that Iraq take “all necessary measures to ensure the prevention of the use of its territory as a launching point” for attacks.”
The Houthis are carrying out the offensive in coordination with Iran. The Mullah regime wants to use the escalation to strengthen its position in the ongoing conflict with the United States. As we reported in mid-July, the IRGC “ordered the Houthi terrorist group to close the Strategic Red Sea Strait of Bab el-Mandeb if the U.S. intensifies its military strikes.”
The Iranian proxy terrorist group appears to be employing the IRGC’s tactic of attacking ships and tankers in the Red Sea Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, effectively closing the region’s second busiest waterway after the Strait of Hormuz. Bab el-Mandeb carries around 7% of the world’s energy supplies.
With Iran disrupting shipping in the Hormuz waterway, Saudi Arabia has been diverting its oil and gas exports through the Bab el-Mandeb. Yemen’s interim government, which does not include the Houthis, was “increasingly worried that the Tehran-backed rebels were copying Iranian manoeuvres in the Strait of Hormuz to gain control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a crucial passage into the Red Sea off the Yemeni coast,” the TV channel France24 reported Tuesday.
In addition to blockading Saudi oil and gas exports, the Houthis are targeting the Arab kingdom’s energy infrastructure. “Houthis said on Monday they targeted a number of sensitive crude oil supply and transport sites linking eastern Saudi Arabia to the critical Red Sea oil export hub of Yanbu,” Reuters reported.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY