Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks this week, intensifying their confrontation with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces and raising concerns that the conflict could widen across the region.
The attacks have killed dozens of civilians and soldiers and targeted Saudi-linked oil tankers travelling from Red Sea ports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward the Gulf of Aden and international markets.
The Bab el-Mandeb is a critical maritime chokepoint linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Before the latest escalation, about 12% of global trade, including roughly a quarter of container traffic, passed through the waterway on routes connecting Europe and Asia through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Fewer tankers have crossed the strait since the attacks began, according to shipping data from analytics company Kpler.
The escalation reflects how Iran “is scaling up pressure on the United States in Yemen through its close ally,” Yemen researcher Afrah Nasser wrote in an analysis for the nonprofit DAWN.
