Saudi strike kills 12 in Yemen as Hormuz tensions escalate

A Saudi strike killed 12 people in Yemen, the Houthis said Thursday, as the Saudi-led coalition intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported three oil tankers hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, fuelling tensions across the region.
“As an initial toll, 12 citizens were killed and three others were critically injured when the Saudi enemy targeted the homes of the families of Ibrahim Saeed Mohammed Ahmed Al-Qouz and Al-Raabi Saeed Mohammed Ahmed Al-Qouz in Al-Barah, Maqbana district,” the Houthi health ministry said in a statement shared by their Saba news agency.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the group at the kingdom’s eastern region.
“Air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the Eastern Province,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki posted on X.
Saudi Arabia has this month come under sustained attack from the Iran-backed Houthis, including a strike on Riyadh’s international airport that was the kingdom’s deadliest in years.
The Houthis said this week they had targeted the Ras Tanura refinery in the oil-rich Eastern Province with a ballistic missile.
Tehran has denied having anything to do with attacks by the Houthis after Saudi Arabia accused Iran of having encouraged the group’s escalation against the kingdom.
Following an uneasy four-year truce, fighting reignited in Yemen in July, months into the US-Iran conflict that has plunged the wider region into crisis.

Three oil tankers hit mines in Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that three tankers had caught fire after hitting mines while attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, a day after the US military insisted it had demined key routes through the waterway.
“Over the past 24 hours, three violating oil tankers exploded and caught fire after striking mines while attempting to pass through the unauthorised southern route of the Strait of Hormuz,” the IRGC said in a statement.
The vessels had “switched off all their radar and navigation systems” and disregarded warnings from the IRGC navy, the statement said.
It was not immediately clear when the incidents occurred or which flags the tankers were flying.
In recent weeks, Iran has reported multiple vessels striking sea mines, prompting US Central Command (CENTCOM), which runs military operations in the region, to reaffirm on social media its insistence that all mines in “primary transit routes” have been cleared.
On Thursday, Hossein Mohebi, the spokesman for the IRGC challenged the claim, saying: “Prove your Hormuz mine-clearing claim with independent evidence, not statements!” in a post on X.
Since the outbreak of the war on 28 February, Iran has severely restricted traffic through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil and gas consumption.
The United States has in response imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers to travel the waterway. On Sunday CENTCOM said it had helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil via Hormuz since the summer.
Iran considers ships using the southern corridor near the Omani coast unauthorised.
In their statement on Thursday, the Guards said “the IRGC Navy states that the unauthorised route through the Strait of Hormuz is mined, and that vessel owners and crews are responsible for transiting these routes and should not pay attention to CENTCOM’s delusions on social media”.
Earlier in the day, the British maritime agency UKMTO said it had received a report of a ship on fire in the strait but gave no details about the cause or any casualties.
It was not immediately clear if it was one of the three ships referred to by the Guards.
They also said they had captured a US reconnaissance drone during an operation in the Strait of Hormuz in a separate statement.
“The IRGC Navy announced that its electronic warfare unit had successfully captured a US MQM-170 drone during an offensive operation in the western Strait of Hormuz,” the statement said.

Vance reaches out to Iran to restart peace talks
US Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iranian Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei in a bid to revive peace negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter.