Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis on Wednesday said they attacked a Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu, in the Red Sea, as they pressed on with their declared maritime blockade of the kingdom.

This was the eighth Saudi oil tanker targeted since the start of the blockade on July 22, a Houthi military spokesman said.

The group "successfully targeted the Saudi oil tanker 'Wafa' in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with a number of ballistic missiles," Yahya Saree said in a video statement.

The Houthis have declared they would escalate their attacks in the northern Red Sea because Saudi Arabia is diverting its oil tankers there from the south in response to their blockade.

The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia's ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran's parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the kingdom's only other maritime route.

Saree said that the group's blockade had pushed Saudi Arabia to divert "its oil tankers towards the northern Red Sea".

So the group will now "escalate in targeting Saudi oil tankers in the northern Red Sea to close all access points and prevent their passage".

With Iran's closure of Hormuz, the Saudi port of Yanbu on the Red Sea became the main exit point for Saudi oil, with the Bab al-Mandeb Strait turning into a crucial transit route for crude.

The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and, via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean.

Saudi seaborne crude exports via the Bab al-Mandeb strait surged eightfold between March and mid-July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to data from maritime tracker Kpler.

It skyrocketed to nearly 100 million barrels for the month of June, compared to seven million barrels in February.

In April and May, all of Saudi Arabia's seaborne crude exports departed from Yanbu port, according to Kpler data. (AFP)


Edited by Aaron Tam