Gulf shipping traffic down after Houthis say they attacked Saudi tanker
Two vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz and only one passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Wednesday, a sharp decrease from the day earlier.
As of Wednesday, shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, vital maritime chokepoints in the Gulf, experienced a significant decline compared to the previous day. According to data from Kpler, only two vessels navigated through the Strait of Hormuz, comprising a Panama-flagged coal-laden ship entering and a commodity vessel from the Marshall Islands exiting.
This marks a drop from eight vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz the day before. Similarly, in the Bab el-Mandeb, a Bahamian-flagged dry bulk carrier passed through, a stark contrast to the 20 vessels that typically cross the strait daily prior to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which began on February 28. Iran's response was the closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the attack.
Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for missile strikes on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. However, Saudi Arabia has not confirmed these incidents. Since last month, the Houthis have enforced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, a move Riyadh strongly denies.
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
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