Houthis News

On October 29, 2026, a Somali Pirate Action Group of 12 armed pirates hijacked the Iranian fishing dhow AZINI approximately 185 nautical miles east of Bandarbeyla, Puntland. The vessel’s crew reportedly included 21 Iranian fishermen and two Somali security guards.On November 2, the Indian Navy freed the vessel following a 48-hour operation in the Arabian Sea, and all crew are reportedly safe.The hijacking of AZINI is the first confirmed hijacking of the fourth quarter and the fourth confirmed hijacking of a dhow or fishing vessel off Somalia this year.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday they had hit Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery, the ⁠biggest in the kingdom, with a ballistic missile.The Houthis also said they had attacked Saudi military aircraft and repelled an advance by Saudi-backed forces near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an important Red Sea shipping route.Intensifying hostilities between Yemen and Saudi Arabia have further disrupted oil supplies and heightened the risk of a wider regional conflict, eight months since the Iran war began.The Houthis' military spokesperson…

Top officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday in a bid to de-escalate the Middle East conflict, as Yemen's Houthis launched new attacks on Saudi Arabia and Egypt approved defence support for the Gulf kingdom.The talks were the first high-level contact between Iran and the three nations — which signed the Mecca mutual defence pact in August — since a war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran also spread to Saudi Arabia and…

Oil prices rose on Friday, with Brent crude touching its highest since early May, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concern over further disruption to energy supplies from the Middle East where UAE authorities also reported an oil spill.Brent crude futures gained $1.71, or 1.5%, to $114.99 a barrel by 1300 GMT, having earlier reached $115.16, the highest level since May 4. US West Texas Intermediate crude gained $1.80, or 1.8%, to $101.27.The Brent benchmark is on track for a 4.4% weekly rise…

Oil prices climbed about 2% to a five-month high on Thursday after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concerns of further disruption to energy supplies from the key exporting region.Brent futures rose $2.42, or 2.2%, to $111.24 a barrel at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.14, or 1.2%, to $98.29.That drove Brent into technically overbought territory for a third time in a week and set for its highest close since May 18.Saudi Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf near Bahrain…

"During the first two weeks of October, weekly container ship capacity transiting the Suez Canal averaged 753k TEU, according to Clarksons Research, compared with 1,457k TEU during the same period in 2023. Since the Houthi attacks began in the Red Sea, this is the first time that transits have exceeded 50% of pre-disruption levels,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.In November 2023, the Houthis announced that they would target Israeli ships in the Red Sea in response to Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Turkey is sending mainly defensive and technical support to Saudi Arabia to help it fight Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, two officials said on Wednesday, after the NATO member and Pakistan pledged to act on the collective defence commitment of their newly formed alliance.Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in August, under which an armed attack on one member constituted an attack on all. They have been working to set the parameters of the new alliance and have held political and military meetings in response to the Houthi attacks.On Monday…

Most Gulf stock markets ended lower on Wednesday as fighting between Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces intensified on several fronts.Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces are pushing a major offensive to retake ground lost to weeks of Houthi advances, backed by stepped-up Saudi air strikes.The Houthis struck Aden International Airport on Wednesday with ballistic missiles and explosive drones, Yemen's Transport Ministry said, marking a sharp escalation…

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces staged a lightning advance on Monday to retake the coast around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait up to the city of Mocha, the government said, pushing the Iran-backed Houthis out of most of the areas they seized last month.The forces of the internationally recognised government, backed by heavy Saudi air strikes, reached the outskirts of Mocha late on Monday and Houthi fighters were retreating into the highlands, four government sources said. The…

Houthi fighters pushed to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that President Donald Trump had called off US strikes on the group at the last minute.A lightning advance by the Iran-backed group this month has extended the wider Middle East conflict to a new theatre and further threatened global energy supplies. Washington has so far rebuffed repeated pleas from Saudi Arabia's Crown…

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis launched a new attack on Saudi Arabia on Monday and Gulf Arab states postponed planned talks with Iran, underscoring fears that the Middle East conflict could spread further and threaten global oil supplies.U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wanted to reach a deal with Washington, signalling a possible diplomatic opening despite the widening regional tensions."The failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the U.S.A.

Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West pipeline, after the vital oil conduit came under aerial attack in the widening Middle East war, threatening to send energy prices even higher.The world’s largest crude oil exporter said it temporarily closed the pipeline as a precaution after a drone attack that both Baghdad and Riyadh said had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Iraq dismissed a military commander on Saturday in response to the attack.The 1,200-km…

Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthis attacked four cities in the south of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the six-month-old Middle East war.The Houthis, who control most of Yemen's populated areas including the capital, said they had launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory. They used drones and missiles to strike a Saudi airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait…

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

Yemen's Mocha port has suspended commercial and maritime operations after being hit by more than 25 missiles in Houthi attacks over recent days, the port's director said on Saturday.The attacks killed seven people and caused an estimated $16 million in losses, the director told a news conference.Mocha is a Red Sea port near the Bab el-Mandab strait, a strategic chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and a key route for international shipping.The port is controlled by forces aligned with Yemen's internationally recognised government.

Saudi crude exports from the Red Sea are increasingly vanishing from view as tankers switch off tracking signals to avoid attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, with analysts saying all recent Yanbu loadings have been conducted "dark".The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, opening a new front against the United States and its allies in the Iran war.Since then, they have claimed attacks on Saudi-linked tankers, Yanbu oil facilities and, most recently…

Four crew members were killed in an attack by Iran-backed Houthis on a small cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, Yemen's transport ministry said, while sources reported a missile attack on a container ship off Pakistan in a suspected U.S. strike.The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah, if confirmed, would mark the first deaths in a Houthi strike on shipping since the Iran war began on February 28. The Houthis have not claimed the attack.Three Pakistanis and one Indonesian were killed…

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they targeted a number of sensitive crude oil supply and transport sites linking eastern Saudi Arabia to the critical Red Sea oil export hub of Yanbu.Saudi state oil giant Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the operation was in response to what he described as Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.Saudi Arabia has re-routed its crude output to Yanbu via its east-west pipeline to get around Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which began after the U.S.

U.S. missiles struck targets across Iran, reaching as far as its Caspian coast, on Friday after President Donald Trump vowed "major military punishment" for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen for extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint, the mouth of the Red Sea.Two weeks after the collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the Iranian armed forces responded by firing at U.S. bases in neighbouring Arab countries and warning people there that they may strike non-military buildings used by U.S.

Saudi Aramco has offered additional crude cargoes for loading from Egypt's Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, according to five trading sources, as Houthi threats to Saudi shipping raise risks for southbound Red Sea exports through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.The cargoes, which are shipped to Egypt's Red Sea port of Ain Sukhna and then carried by the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline to Sidi Kerir, are being offered on a spot basis, two of the sources said, supplementing supplies to Aramco's term buyers.While Aramco already supplies some customers in Europe and North America from Sidi Kerir…

Four tankers changed course in the Red Sea on Wednesday, with two signalling the Suez Canal as their new destination after Yemen's Houthi militia warned ships to avoid sailing to Saudi Arabian ports, ship-tracking data showed.The Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the United States in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf."The threat of Houthi hostile actions against Saudi Arabia ...

Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday after threats from Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, as a widening Middle East conflict disrupted shipping through two of the world's most critical energy chokepoints.The diversions came as U.S. forces bombed targets in the south and west of Iran overnight, Tehran targeted U.S. sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan and at least one tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the latest escalation of…

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militia told shipping companies not to load or discharge cargo at Saudi Arabian ports or they may be targeted, according to an email the group sent to companies.The Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the United States in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf."Vessels are banned from loading or discharging cargo at or from any Saudi ports…