Three crew members are reported killed in a suspected attack by Iran-backed Houthis on a small cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, according to Yemen’s transport ministry and maritime sources. The ship is described as the Egyptian-owned Tihamah. The Houthis have not claimed responsibility.
If confirmed, the reported deaths would be the first fatalities from a Houthi strike on shipping since the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the region began on February 28. Other reports in the same incident describe the number killed as four, but the majority of accounts cited in the material refer to three.
Separately, sources also report a missile strike on a container ship off Pakistan. The attack is described as a suspected U.S. strike in the accounts provided. While the outlets align on the two parallel shipping incidents—one in the Red Sea involving the Tihamah and one near Pakistan involving a container ship—they differ mainly in the reported casualty count and the attribution of responsibility for each strike.
