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On March 23, the Saudi-led coalition claimed that it had destroyed two booby-trapped boats the Houthis (Ansar Allah) intended to use in an attack on two large oil tankers in the Southern Red Sea.
In a statement, the coalition said that the Houthis were preparing to launch the two water-borne improvised explosive devices (WBIEDs) from the province of al-Hudaydah on Yemen’s western coast.
“The Houthi militia is escalating its hostile attacks on energy sources, the nerve of global economy,” the statement reads.
The Saudi-led coalition released via the Saudi Press Agency videos of the alleged Houthi WBIEDs being destroyed in pinpoint strikes.
#التحالف ينشر فيديو لتدمير زورقين مفخخين وإحباط عملية هجوم جنوب البحر الأحمر.#واس_عام pic.twitter.com/OasPdTzGNA
— واس العام (@SPAregions) March 23, 2022
This was not the first such claim by the coalition. On March 20, the Saudi-led coalition claimed that it had destroyed WBIED of the Houthis off the coast of al-Hudaydah.
The Houthis have been targeting Saudi-led coalition warships with remotely-controlled WBIEDs for several years. In 2017, a detailed report by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed that Iranian components were used in the making of these makeshift anti-shipping weapon.
The Saudi-led coalition claims that it has destroyed at least 108 WBIEDs of the Houthis since the beginning of its intervention in Yemen nearly seven years ago.
The Houthis have been escalating their attacks on Saudi Arabia. On March 22, the coalition said that a ballistic missile launched by the group was intercepted over the Kingdom’s southern region. Just two days earlier, the group launched a large drone and missile attack on vital targets in the Kingdom.
The Houthis’ recent attacks on Saudi Arabia came following an offer from the Kingdom to host a new round of peace talks on the war in Yemen.
