CAIRO, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked a vessel off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Yanbu in the Red Sea, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech on Monday.
Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company Bahri later said one of its vessels, the “Amzan”, was involved in a maritime incident in the Red Sea earlier in the day, adding that all crew members were safe and no injuries had been reported.
The company said it remained in contact with the vessel and was closely coordinating with the relevant authorities.
Earlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile 63 nautical miles west of Yanbu.
The UKMTO said all crew were safe and accounted for with no reported environmental impact.
Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and it has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran.
Shipping from Yanbu has itself faced disruption since the Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi-linked vessels in the Red Sea last month.
The Houthis have carried out other attacks on Saudi oil facilities and shipping in the Red Sea in recent weeks, and in July they claimed to have targeted Saudi oil giant Aramco facilities in Yanbu.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Eman Abouhassira; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alexandra Hudson)
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