Foreign Relations

Houthis Claim Missile Strike on Saudi Landing Ship and Four Escorts Off Mocha

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of a military spokesman delivering a televised statement: a bespectacled officer in desert-camouflage fatigues and a red beret stands behind a dark wooden podium bearing an ornamental golden eagle crest, speaking into two slender microphones angled toward him, a broad red-white-and-black flag hanging in vertical folds at the left edge of the frame and a pleated slate-blue curtain filling the wall behind him.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Monday that the group's forces struck a Saudi military landing ship and four escorting boats with several ballistic missiles in the Red Sea off the coast of Mocha, near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Saree claimed the hits were accurate and direct, that the ship caught fire and that several of the escorting boats sank. Saudi authorities issued no immediate confirmation, and the claim remains independently unverified. The Iran-backed group has declared a blockade of Saudi shipping since July 20, framing the campaign as blockade for blockade, and Bab al-Mandeb has carried added traffic since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed in late February.

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