Two Saudis killed by Houthi rebels in Red Sea boat attack

RIYADH // Two Saudi sailors were killed during a Yemeni rebel boat attack in the Red Sea, the Saudi-led coalition said on Monday.

The coalition said three Houthi rebel boats attacked a Saudi frigate on patrol west of Hodeidah, a Yemeni coastal city held by the insurgents.

It did not say when the incident occurred.

Although the Saudi vessel “dealt with the boats,” one of them “collided with the stern of the ship and exploded and caused a fire” which the crew brought under control.

As a result, two Saudi crewmen were killed and three were wounded, the coalition said, adding the frigate was able to resume its patrol.

Since it began air strikes in March 2015, the coalition has enforced sea and air controls on Yemen to prevent arms reaching the Iran-backed rebels, who are allied with troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.

The rebels claimed responsibility for the attack without specifying how the vessel was targeted.

“It was hit with precision after an accurate surveillance operation off the western coast,” a rebel military official said in a statement.

The coalition intervened after the rebels and their allies overran the capital Sanaa and moved on to other parts of Yemen, forcing president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

United Nations mediation and seven ceasefires have failed to stop the fighting, which the UN warned has left Yemen at risk of famine this year.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has put forward a roadmap for peace under which Mr Hadi’s powers would be reduced in favour of a new vice president who would oversee the formation of an interim government before elections.

That process would occur in tandem with a Houthi withdrawal from the capital and other cities.

Mr Hadi refuses to discuss the proposals, the envoy told the UN Security Council last week.

* Agence France-Presse