Iranian-backed Houthi rebels killed six people and wounded at least 10 others Tuesday after firing three ballistic missiles at a commercial cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, off the southern tip of Yemen. Yemen's Transport Ministry identified the stricken ship as the Tihamah, sailing under a Tanzanian flag and owned by an Egyptian operator, which the ministry described as a Yemeni commercial vessel carrying food. Four crew members — three Pakistanis and one Indonesian — were among the dead, along with two members of Yemen's government-allied National Resistance Forces who responded to the scene.

Yemen's coast guard reported that a second missile strike targeted rescuers attempting to evacuate the burning vessel, compounding the casualties. The Houthis, for their part, claimed the ship was carrying Saudi military equipment. The attack is the first to cause confirmed fatalities from Houthi strikes on shipping since the United States and Israel began striking Iran on February 28, and it comes after the Houthis announced a naval blockade of Saudi ports last month.

The vessel strike is part of a broader and accelerating Houthi campaign against Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The Houthis have also targeted the Red Sea port city of Mokha with ballistic missiles, killing at least seven people there on Sunday and striking again Monday, and have attacked Saudi oil facilities and tankers. A drone strike in Yemen's Shabwa province killed two government soldiers Monday, while tit-for-tat clashes have extended to al-Jawf, Saada, and Marib provinces.

The escalation threatens to reignite Yemen's civil war following a UN-brokered truce reached in April 2022 that had largely ended major fighting. The Houthis have controlled the capital, Sanaa, since 2014; the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the government, which now operates from Aden. Violence resumed July 13 after a Saudi airstrike on Sanaa airport blocked an Iranian flight carrying a senior Houthi delegation, triggering retaliatory strikes that have grown into the deadliest exchange in years.

With Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupting roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, international attention has shifted sharply to the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait as an alternative route for Saudi crude exports. UN envoy Hans Grundberg warned Friday that Yemen faces a greater risk of large-scale conflict than at any point since the 2022 truce, cautioning that the fighting risks drawing the country into a wider regional confrontation. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the group remains open to negotiations but insisted any settlement must include lifting the Saudi-led air and sea blockade imposed in 2015.