إضغط هنا لقراءة الخبر بالعربية
Saudi-led coalition backing Yemeni legitimate government displayed Tuesday "new proofs" on Houthi violation against the international humanitarian law and attempted attack on a commercial ship in the Red Sea.
The coalition showed photos for what it said Houthi booby-trapped drone boat as attempting to target a commercial ship, to the south of the Red Sea.
These evident proofs are revealed as part of coalition "credibility" to promote the "highest level of communication with the international community" as Houthi "misleading media persistently falsify facts and try to renounce their hostile, terrorist acts," said coalition spokesman.
The "coalition joint forces leadership will save no effort in fending off the Iranian-backed Houthi militias' terrorist attempts targeting global navigation and trade," Colonel Turki al-Maliki added.
On Monday, the coalition said its forces had thwarted a Houthi attempted attack targeting a commercial vessel on the Red Sea, but the group denied.
The coalition naval foiled a "terrorist attempt by Houthi militias to target a commercial ship, to the south of the Red Sea, with a 'Blue Fish' booby-trapped drone boat," said Maliki.
Coalition forces observed, intercepted and destroyed the boat as it moved, he added. "Threatening the international navigation and trade by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias is a dangerous terrorist act, but coalition forces work on neutralizing all hostile, terrorist capacities of the Houthi militias."
On their part, the rebels dismissed the coalition claims as "baseless".
"The absurd allegation by the aggression spokesman unveils the mean level of military, political and human failure reached by the aggression on Yemen," said Houthi spokesman Yahiya Sarie.
Yemen has been racked by a 4-year bloody conflictbetween the internationally-recognized Yemeni government's forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who ousted the government in 2014.
In July last year, Saudi Arabia announced suspension of all its crude exports shipped via the Bab al-Mandeb Strait after two of its tankers had been attacked by Houthi group on Red Sea off Yemen, leaving one of the tankers slightly damaged.
The Yemeni internationally-recognized government and the coalition always accuse Houthis of threatening the Red Sea traffic and using Hodeida seaport to smuggle Iranian weapons including ballistic missiles fired on Saudi lands, charge denied by the group.
The Red Sea is one of the world's most vital shipment routes, with its southern gate – Bab al-Mandeb – channeling 30 percent of global oil daily.
Since mid-May, Houthis have intensified firing ballistic missiles and launching drone attacks on Saudi territory "in reply to coalition airstrikes that target Yemeni civilians and infrastructure."
Yemen's conflict hastriggered what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with most of the population in need for a type of humanitarian aid and immediate protection, including 14 million people risking famine and some 1.8 million children suffering malnutrition.
