Yemen: Houthi official threatens to target oil tankers

Houthi rebels

18 June 2019; MEMO: A senior official in Yemen’s Houthi group yesterday threatened to target oil sites as well as oil tankers in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and some Arab countries with missiles, including Egypt and Sudan.

“Any oil site or ship carrying oil in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea would be legitimate targets for us to stop the aggression,” President of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council Mahdi Al-Mashat said during an interview with the group’s Al-Masirah TV channel.

The Houthis, he added, now have “missiles capable of threatening deep into the coalition countries, and reaching any point in the Gulf states.”

Al-Mashat’s remarks came after the group claimed responsibility for two attacks against the Saudi airports of Abha and Jazzan, south of the kingdom.

On Sunday, the US military warned that the Houthis’ military power has increased, pointing out that the group hit a US military drone in Yemen on 6 June despite it flying at high altitudes.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been leading a military alliance against the Houthis in Yemen under the pretext of supporting the legitimate government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.