IFP - Riyadh has temporarily suspended all oil shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after Yemen�s Houthi Ansarullah movement launched retaliatory attacks on a Saudi warship and a vessel operated by the Riyadh-led coalition waging war the Arabian Peninsula state.


On Wednesday morning, the Houthi-run al-Masirah television network reported that Yemeni fighters had launched a missile attack on the Saudi Dammam battleship off the western coast of Yemen.

In a separate statement carried by Yemen�s official SABA news agency later in the day, the Houthis said they had also targeted a coalition boat off the coast of el-Durayhmi in southern Hudaydah port city.

A Yemeni navy source said that coalition boat was carrying weapons and Saudi-allied forces to Hudaydah, which has been the subject of a military push by Emirati forces and allied militants, backed by Saudi air raids.

Additionally, Lebanon�s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network quoted the Yemeni navy as saying that the boat had been destroyed and all on board had been killed.

However, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement late on Wednesday that the Houthi fighters had attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), each carrying 2 million barrels of oil, in the Red Sea.

�Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab el-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab el-Mandeb is safe,� he said.

Falih also said one of the VLCCs had sustained �minimal damage� and efforts were underway to move it to the nearest Saudi port.

Meanwhile, Saudi oil giant Aramco confirmed the Yemeni attacks on the vessels, which were operated by the kingdom�s shipping company Bahri.

It further claimed the decision to suspend shipments via Bab el-Mandeb was �in the interest of the safety of ships and their crews and to avoid the risk of oil spill.�

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world�s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.

Yemeni navy warns aggressors

Yemen�s Naval and Coastal Defense Forces command�said in�a statement�that the retaliatory operation �is not the first and will not be the last.�

�We reaffirm that those, who threaten international peace and security and expose the Red Sea security to great risks, are the US-Saudi aggression forces and their crimes and siege against the Yemeni people,� it added.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war in March 2015 in support of Yemen�s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthis.

Yemeni forces regularly target�positions inside Saudi Arabia and fire rockets at the coalition�s battleships in retaliatory attacks against�the Riyadh-led�military operation on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has also imposed a blockade on Yemen, which has smothered�humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.

The military campaign has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the�Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

Several Western countries have been supplying Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment.