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On May 23, warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition destroyed two water-born improvised explosive devices (WBIEDs) of the Houthis in international waters of the Red Rea, the Emirates News Agency (WMA) reported. The source added that two other WBIEDs had managed to escape from the coalition’s warplanes.
The UAE-based Sky News Arabia TV claimed that the Houthis had been planning to use these WBIEDs to target two warships of the Saudi-led coalition and three merchant ships in the Red Sea.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes destroyed two similar WBIEDs of the Houthis in the al-Hudaydah port along the western coast of Yemen on March 23. Back then, the WMA also reported that the Houthis were planning to use these two WBIEDs to target merchant ships in the Red Sea.
An earlier report of the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed that the Houthis had used similar WBIEDs to attack several warships of the Saudi-led coalition over the last two years. The CAR’s report also suggested that Iran had been directly involved in the developing of these WBIEDs, as many Iranian-made parts had been found in some WBIEDs inspected by the CAR’s team last year.
Last week, the Saudi-led coalition resumed its military operations on the western Yemeni coast in a new attempt to reach and capture the strategic port of al-Hudaydah, that’s considered the main naval facility of the Houthis.
