The Houthis said on Wednesday that they had fired ballistic missiles at the NCC Wafaa, a Saudi oil tanker, off the coast of Yanbu, a major Saudi port city in the northern Red Sea.
It is the northernmost attack by the Yemeni group since it began a blockade on Saudi Arabia on 22 July, and analysts warn a shift north towards Egypt and the Suez Canal would lead to increasing economic pressure on the Gulf kingdom.
Until now, the Houthis had mostly targeted ships off Yemen's coast, in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The group accused the Wafaa of violating the blockade and ignoring warning calls before it was struck.
Since the US-Israel war on Iran began, Saudi Arabia had kept part of its oil flowing through the alternative route of Bab al-Mandab. But the Houthi blockade on the strait is now limiting that option.
Ibrahim Jalal, a Yemen analyst, described the move as a “bid to deny the Suez Canal rerouting” – the alternative route Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year.
