Saudi-led coalition strikes Houthi targets in Yemen after tanker attacks, Houthis announce 'escalation for escalation'

The coalition strikes

A Saudi-led military coalition launched airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen's Hodeidah province early Friday, hitting facilities of the state telecommunications company in the port city of Hodeidah and Kamaran Island off the western coast. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki confirmed the strikes targeted what he called legitimate military objectives used by the militia to threaten commercial shipping. The Houthi-affiliated broadcaster Al Masirah, cited by Reuters, reported one employee injured at the telecoms facility and a woman wounded on Kamaran Island.

All Yemeni ports — including Hodeidah, Ras Issa and Salif — remain open to shipping traffic.

Al-Maliki denied that the port of Hodeidah itself had been struck. Residents told the German Press Agency (dpa), however, that airstrikes and explosions occurred in the port's vicinity, with flames and dense smoke visible.

The tanker attacks

Hours before the coalition response, the Houthis claimed attacks on two Saudi oil tankers. On Thursday night, the Saudi-flagged vessel NCC MASA sustained light hull damage in a Red Sea attack and continued its voyage after inspections, according to the state news agency SPA citing a transport authority source. The tanker Encelia had already been attacked overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

The hull of the NCC Masa was lightly damaged.

The Saudi-led coalition accused the militia of maritime terrorism. Houthi forces had announced earlier this week that they would impose a blockade on Saudi ships, escalating a conflict that has raged for more than ten years.

Houthi retaliation and threats

The Houthis declared a phase of escalation for escalation following the airstrikes. The Iranian broadcaster Press TV reported that Houthi counterattacks followed shortly afterward against several areas in Saudi Arabia, including explosions at the port city of Yanbu and rocket attacks on the coastal city of Jizan. Saudi civil defence said via X that the danger in Yanbu had passed.

A second maritime chokepoint at risk

The Houthi militia controls the north of Yemen and large stretches of the western Red Sea coast, giving it reach over the Bab al-Mandab strait with its missiles, drones and cruise missiles. Saudi Arabia has been rerouting part of its oil exports through Bab al-Mandab, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, as the Strait of Hormuz further east has seen repeated attacks on tankers and commercial ships amid the Iran war.

There are concerns that the Houthis could bring shipping through the Suez Canal to a standstill in the event of a further escalation in the Iran war between Washington and Tehran.

Bab al-Mandab has grown in importance as an alternative export route for Saudi oil. The strait and the Strait of Hormuz together count among the world's most critical shipping lanes. The Houthi blockade threat and the coalition response have raised fears of a renewed conflagration between the militia and Saudi Arabia, which had observed an uneasy truce since 2022. The first major hostilities since that ceasefire erupted earlier this month when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of attacking Sanaa airport to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing, while Riyadh said the militia later attacked the kingdom.

The wider war context

US forces continued their nightly strikes against Iran for the 13th consecutive night and shelled another freighter in the Gulf of Oman, according to AP. The parallel escalation across both flanks of the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, marks a sharp deterioration of regional security. A years-long ceasefire in Yemen now risks a definitive collapse, raising the prospect of a wider conflict that would close both the world's most important oil transit chokepoints simultaneously.