By Mohammed Ghobari, Jonathan Saul and Nayera Abdallah
Aug 11 (Reuters) – Three crew members were killed in a suspected attack by Iran-backed Houthis on a small cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday while a container ship was hit by a missile off Pakistan in a suspected U.S. attack, sources said.
The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah, if confirmed, would be the first deaths in a Houthi strike on shipping since the Iran war began on February 28. The Houthis have not claimed the attack.
Two Pakistanis and one Indonesian person were killed, Yemeni sources said. After the attack, the crew lost control of the vessel and were approached by Yemeni coastguard, they added.
Yemeni forces then came under fire, UK maritime risk management group Vanguard said.
The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea on July 20 in response to what they described as a Saudi siege. Riyadh denies that Yemen is under siege.
The ship was hit by an unknown projectile, according to a report received by the British navy affiliated agency UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
The incident occurred while the ship was at anchor northeast of Perim Island, Yemen, British maritime security group Ambrey said.
ATTACK OFF PAKISTAN
The Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova was struck by a missile in an attack off Pakistan while sailing into the Gulf of Oman, maritime security sources told Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal reported the vessel was attacked by a U.S. helicopter which fired a Hellfire missile at the ship’s rudder after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade of Iran-linked shipping in the region.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. Central Command.
If confirmed it would be the 12th vessel attacked by U.S. forces since its blockade was announced in April and the third since the blockade was reimposed on July 14.The ship recently made port calls in Mumbai and Port Klang, Malaysia, where Iran-linked ships have also been spotted, said Charlie Brown, senior advisor at U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic using ship and satellite tracking.
“The reported U.S. disabling and stopping of the Panama-flagged Vela Nova near the blockade line in the Gulf of Oman, after its recent Mumbai port call alongside these vessels, underscores the heightened scrutiny now being applied to Iran-related shipping,” he said.
The ship was believed to have been hit some 71 nautical miles off Pakistan’s coast, Vanguard said.
The UKMTO also said it had received a report of an incident involving a container ship.
SHIPPING TRAFFIC
Shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and Red Sea has fallen by more than 50% since an earlier wave of Houthi attacks on shipping in 2023-25.
They have fallen further since the Houthis announced their blockade last month, with an average of 32 ships per day passing through the strait last week, according to Kpler data, down from an average of 50 before the blockade.
Ambrey noted that the cargo ship, which sources said was the Tihamah, was not Saudi-owned or operated and that it had departed the Yemeni government-held port of al-Mokha on Saturday.
LSEG data lists Egyptian companies as owners and managers of the ship. Neither responded to Reuters emails and phone calls seeking immediate comment.
Traffic is even more disrupted in the Strait of Hormuz with just six passing through on Monday, down from a 10-day average of about 11 and prewar levels of some 130 to 140.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Aden, Jonathan Saul in London, Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, Maha El Dahan and Tala Ramadan in Dubai; writing by Nayera Abdallah and Nafisa Eltahir; editing by Michael Georgy, David Goodman and Jason Neely)
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