YEMEN’S Iran-backed Houthi government has attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, as the US military conducted a 12th night of strikes against Iran.

The Houthis’ Saba news agency said today that their forces had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, in the Red Sea the day before, sparking fires on both.

That would be the first reported Yemeni attack on a vessel since the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this week in retaliation for the autocratic kingdom’s blockade of Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in the capital Sanaa.

Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, is a vital shipping choke point connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12 per cent of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there, moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

A senior Houthi official said the blockade of Saudi-linked shipping would remain in effect until a Saudi blockade against the Houthis was lifted. The official gave no details of the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

The Houthi attack threatens to open a new front in a war that has hit the global economy hard, sending prices of fuel and other goods surging across the world as the US and Iran vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz — which was safe and free to traverse before the US and Israel launched their unprovoked war on Iran in February.

US President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the US would destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the strait. International law prohibits such attacks unless the infrastructure is being used for military purposes.

Iranian state media reported that US missiles had struck locations overnight near the cities of Ahvaz, Ramshir and Andimeshk in western Iran and that two people had been killed in a US missile strike on the town of Shalamcheh on the Iraqi border.

Jordanian authorities said today that the country’s military had intercepted three Iranian missiles in the morning.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry posted on X that sirens had sounded and urged the public to remain calm and head to a safe area.

Overnight, military officials in Kuwait said on social media that their air defences were “confronting attacks by hostile drones.”