DUBAI: An alleged strike by Houthi rebels on a cargo vessel killed at least four people near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen, the country's internationally recognised government said on Tuesday.
The strike marks the latest fatal attack on a ship in the contested Red Sea waterway after the Houthis announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia last month.
The Yemeni government's transport ministry accused the Houthis of launching the salvo that hit a cargo vessel named the "Tihamah" with "three successive ballistic-missile strikes while it was sailing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait".
"The Houthi attack on the vessel which was carrying food supplies sparked a fire on board, killed four crew members -- three Pakistanis and one Indonesian -- and injured four others, as well as a member of the rescue team," said the ministry.
A source from the Yemeni government forces based in the port city of Mokha said five people had been killed in the incident.
Earlier, British maritime security company Vanguard reported that at least two people were killed in the incident on the Tihamah, but did not provide any information about a possible culprit.
"Two crew members, one Pakistani and one Indonesian national, were killed, while four others, comprising three Pakistani and one Indonesian national, were injured," the agency added.
"The Yemeni Navy subsequently deployed to assist the vessel and came under fire, resulting in one additional casualty."
The incident comes after a years-long truce in Yemen's civil war between the Tehran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government collapsed last month as fighting flared between Iran and the United States.
The breakdown of the UN-backed 2022 accord came as the Houthis announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and the kingdom's oil infrastructure, in parallel with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.