Yemen rebels pose threat to shipping: Arab coalition
AFP
AFP, RIYADH: Huthi rebels in Yemen are posing a threat to shipping in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government said Sunday after an attack on an Emirati vessel.
The coalition said Shiite Huthi militiamen had attacked the vessel on its usual route to and from (the southern port city of) Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians.
Coalition air and naval forces targeted Huthi militia boats involved in the attack near the Bab al-Mandab, it said, while coalition forces rescued civilian passengers following the attack on Friday night.
This incident demonstrates Huthi tactics of terrorist attacks against civilian international navigation in the Bab al-Mandab, the coalition said in a statement.
The strait is a major shipping lane between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden leading into the Indian Ocean. The rebels, in a statement posted Saturday on their sabanews.net website, claimed the attack which it said.
