The Saudi-led Arab coalition announced Monday that the Iran-backed Houthi militias seized a seized a vessel towing a South Korean drilling rig at the south end of the Red Sea.
Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said the incident took place late on Sunday. The Houthis, sailing in two boats, boarded the vessel and robbed the crew at gunpoint.
This terrorist operation reflects the real danger this terrorist militia poses to international marine navigation, said Maliki.
It also poses a criminal precedent against the security of the Mandeb Strait and southern Red Sea, he added.
In a meeting with the South Korean ambassador to Yemen, Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdullah al-Hadrami sharply condemned the seizure of the ship and called for its immediate release, according to a government statement.
“These provocative and illegal actions will negatively affect the freedom of international navigation,” he said.
