A Houthi health official reported Tuesday that Saudi warplanes struck Yemen, killing three people including two children, as Human Rights Watch accused the Houthi rebels of possible war crimes related to attacks on commercial vessels.
The renewed fighting in Yemen endangers civilians and threatens shipping through the Red Sea, a route that has grown increasingly vital following disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. launched its military campaign against Iran.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the Houthi official’s account, and the official did not specify what the Saudi warplanes had targeted.
Anees al Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said in a post on X on Tuesday that Saudi airstrikes killed three people, including two children, in Yemen’s Taiz province. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Al-Asbahi said two other people were injured in the strikes.
The escalation follows the Iran-backed Houthi rebels’ seizure of the strategic Greater and Lesser Hanish islands in the southern Red Sea, enhancing their ability to control a key maritime shipping route.
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transits in peacetime — in the opening days of the conflict. The Saudis have since relied on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads out of the Red Sea, for crude oil exports.
The Houthis’ latest seizures, following their capture of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island last week, increase pressure on Saudi shipments and, by extension, global oil supplies and prices.
This could provide Iran with additional leverage in its conflict with the United States.
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that at least three attacks by Houthi rebels against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between July 20 and August 24 could constitute war crimes.
Houthi attacks against Saudi-linked shipping began in mid-July amid the latest flare-up of violence in Yemen’s civil war.
Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that irrespective of politics, “attacks on civilian crews carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes.”
The Houthis say their attacks on Saudi-linked shipping are retaliation for the Saudi-led coalition blockade of Houthi-held areas in Yemen, a measure tied to the country’s decade-old civil war.
The rights group said the Houthis claimed to have attacked at least nine vessels over the past month, including two Saudi-flagged vessels, a Tanzania-flagged vessel, and a Dominica-flagged vessel.
The rights group urged the Houthis to “immediately and unconditionally end all unlawful attacks on civilian ships.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit the country on Wednesday and meet with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
