{"id":2260,"date":"2026-07-23T13:53:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/07\/23\/houthis-claim-strikes-on-saudi-oil-tankers-in-red-sea-video\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:53:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:53:55","slug":"houthis-claim-strikes-on-saudi-oil-tankers-in-red-sea-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=2260","title":{"rendered":"Houthis claim strikes on Saudi oil tankers in Red Sea (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A vessel reportedly caught fire after being hit by a projectile in the Red Sea<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Yemen\u2019s Houthis said they struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea in the first attack of the kind since the Iranian-backed militant group declared a naval blockade of the kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday that the group targeted the Saudi-flagged vessels Encelia and Layla with missiles and drones. He added that around ten ships changed course since the blockade was formally imposed on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the UK Maritime Trade Operations coordination center, a vessel reported that it caught fire after being struck by an unidentified projectile around 130 km from Al Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia. There were no reports of casualties.<\/p>\n<p>A video posted on social media appears to show a large fire aboard a ship.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BIG: First Saudi oil tanker reportedly hit by Houthi missile near Yemen, engulfed in flames. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R3nG7FSdW1\">pic.twitter.com\/R3nG7FSdW1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Clash Report (@clashreport) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/clashreport\/status\/2080041184538300727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) later cited a source at the kingdom\u2019s Transport General Authority as confirming that the Encelia caught fire after being struck. The source said all crew members were safe.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"47\" data-end=\"241\">In a statement on Wednesday, Saree said the group would continue to enforce what he described as a policy of <em>\u201ca siege for a siege,\u201d<\/em> which Riyadh considers illegal under international law.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"246\" data-end=\"621\">The Houthis imposed the blockade a week after forces loyal to Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government bombed Sanaa International Airport in an attempt to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from Tehran from landing. The group has regularly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the start of the Gaza war, before reaching a ceasefire with the US in May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A vessel reportedly caught fire after being hit by a projectile in the Red Sea&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}