Houthis Strike Saudi Tanker Amzan Near Yanbu

Yemen’s Houthi movement says it struck the Saudi oil tanker Amzan with a ballistic missile near the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea on Monday, August 24, the first confirmed hit on a VLCC class vessel since the rebels resumed their campaign against Saudi shipping. The strike on one of Saudi Arabia’s main oil export outlets, a route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, matters for Serbia too: any fresh disruption to Red Sea supply pushes global crude prices up, and that price underpins what drivers pay at the pump at home.

The British maritime agency United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) was first to report that a tanker had been hit by an unidentified projectile about 63 nautical miles, roughly 117 kilometers, west of Yanbu. Only later was the vessel identified: Amzan, a tanker with the international identifier IMO 9693745, sails under the Saudi flag and is owned by the state shipping company Bahri. At the time of the strike it was sailing from Ain Sukhna in Egypt toward Yanbu. A fire broke out on the main deck after the ballistic missile hit.

Bahri confirmed the vessel had been involved in a maritime incident and that the entire crew was safe, with no injuries. According to available reports, there was no pollution at sea. Saudi officials have not confirmed the incident, and the Saudi Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Al Jazeera.

Why Are the Houthis Targeting Saudi Tankers?

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was carried out in support of Iran in its war with the United States and Israel. A military spokesman for the movement said the “vessel was struck off the coast of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia with a ballistic missile,” adding that the strike was part of enforcing a decision by the group’s armed forces banning maritime navigation for “the Saudi enemy.” According to the Houthi statement, “the strike was precise and direct, it sparked a fire on the vessel and forced other ships in the area to move away.”

The Houthi campaign targets vessels flying the Saudi flag, owned or managed by Saudi entities, and ships calling at Saudi ports. Maritime security analyst Martine Kelly of EOS Risk Group, who identified Amzan as the vessel hit, pointed to a line the Houthis have not yet crossed:

“So far, however, there have been no confirmed attacks on vessels that do not fly the Saudi flag simply because they were calling at Saudi ports on the Red Sea.”

Kelly warned that this distinction should not be read as a sign the threat is smaller. The Joint Maritime Information Center had already assessed the threat in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the southern Red Sea as significant, judging further attacks a “highly likely possibility,” since the Houthis have said the route is effectively closed to all vessels linked to Saudi Arabia.

A Month of Intensified Attacks

Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels are loaded daily, and it is a key outlet for Saudi oil exports that bypass the Iran blocked Strait of Hormuz. Maritime traffic around Yanbu has been disrupted since last month, when the Houthis declared a blockade on all vessels linked to Saudi Arabia and began their attacks.

In the preceding weeks the group killed seven people at a Yemeni port and struck a Saudi oil refinery, and according to Al Jazeera, killed at least six people and wounded ten in a double attack on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strike on Amzan, the first on a VLCC class tanker since the campaign resumed, is also the largest vessel hit by tonnage so far.

Neither side has so far signaled that the target list will expand beyond vessels linked to Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh has still not officially confirmed the incident. Whether the strike on Amzan stays an isolated case or turns out to be the opening of a new wave of attacks on Saudi shipping will depend on how Riyadh and its Western partners respond in the coming days.