Houthi attack kills six in first death in Red Sea since Iran war began

Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed six people aboard a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, the first reported fatalities from attacks targeting Red Sea shipping in more than a year.

Within hours, U.S. forces said they had fired missiles at a container ship that allegedly attempted to breach Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf of Oman.

The twin incidents illustrate how the war, stretched into its sixth month, is inflicting a widening toll on two of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, even as diplomats signal progress towards reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Yemen’s transport ministry said the casualties included four crew members aboard the vessel — identified as the Egyptian-owned, Tanzania-flagged Tihamah — three of them Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian. Separately, Yemen’s coastguard reportedly said two members of the Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces were also killed in a follow-up strike as they carried out a rescue.

Yemen’s transport ministry said in its statement that it holds “the Houthi terrorist militias fully responsible for the deaths, injuries and damage inflicted on the commercial vessel “Tihamah” as well as for the serious consequences resulting from these attacks,” according to a Google translation of Arabic. 

A Houthi-aligned media outlet later said the group’s forces had targeted a ship carrying Saudi military equipment, though the Houthis haven’t addressed the casualty figures officially.

The Iran-aligned group declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea on July 20 after the collapse of a years-long Yemeni civil-war truce, calling it retaliation for a Saudi “siege” on Yemen, an allegation Riyadh has denied.

Separately, the U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday that a Navy helicopter fired two missiles at the Panama-flagged Vela Nova, disabling its steering and propulsion, after the crew ignored warnings while transiting the Gulf of Oman.

Centcom said the ship had tried to run past the naval blockade Washington reimposed on Iranian ports in mid-April. There were no immediate reports of casualties. U.S forces have redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade since it took effect, disabled three non-compliant ships and boarded two, according to Centcom.

The hostilities at sea come as U.S.-Iran diplomacy…