Saudi Media Claims Houthis Are Holding 19 Oil Tankers Hostage Off Yemeni Coast
23
April, 2018
The
Yemeni Houthis have captured 19 oil tankers and are keeping them from
entering the Hodeidah port, according
to reports from Saudi media quoting the Kingdom’s ambassador in
Yemen.
The
ambassador suggested three possible reasons for the
detention, including
an attempt to extract money from the owners of the vessels, “the
continued starvation of the Yemeni people”, and a plan to destroy
the tankers, causing major environmental damage to the Red Sea.
However, the
only media sources reporting the tanker seizure are Saudi sources and
there has been no confirmation from an external source that
the Houthis have indeed seized any tankers yet. No details have been
disclosed as to the origin of the vessels, either.
According
to Saudi Arabia, the Houthis - a Shiite militia backed by Iran - are
holding the port of Hodeidah as “a tool of war”. The
port is one of the largest in the war-torn country, and it is the
destination for many oil tankers and humanitarian aid. It is also
controlled by the Houthis unlike other large ports, which the
Saudi-led coalition closed earlier, worsening the plight of starving
Yemenis.
At
the end of last year, the Houthis threatened that
they would start attacking oil tankers and warships sailing under
enemy flags if the Gulf coalition fighting it in the country does not
reopen its ports. Since then, there have been multiple reports of
Houthis strikes against Saudi targets, including civilian targets,
but no real damage has been done.
Even
so, following the latest missile strike report, Human Rights
Watch said that
“Houthi forces in Yemen violated the laws of war by launching
ballistic missiles indiscriminately at populated areas in Saudi
Arabia on March 25, 2018.”
“But
just as unlawful coalition airstrikes don’t justify the Houthi’s
indiscriminate attacks, the Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to
justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen’s civilian
population,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human
Rights Watch, said.
Yemen
lies along one of the main global oil chokepoints in the Red Sea.
Millions of barrels of crude oil pass Yemeni shores from the Suez
Canal en route to Europe every day.
Houthi political leader Saleh al-Samad reported killed in Yemen
Minutes
ago, the official media wing of the Houthi forces announced that
their forces fired a ballistic missile into the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia (KSA).
According
to the Houthi forces, their rocket battalion fired a Badr-1 ballistic
missile towards the Saudi Aramco Company dock in the Jizan Region of
southern Saudi Arabia.
No
details have been released regarding the fate of the missile.
The
Houthi forces said the ballistic missile attack today was done in
retaliation for the Saudi airstrike that killed scores of Yemeni
civilians inside the Hajjah Governorate.
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