Shipping traffic slows down in Gulf after Houthis attack Saudi oil tanker

NEW DELHI - Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the key maritime chokepoints in the Gulf, reduced significantly on Wednesday from the previous day, shipping data showed.

Just two vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz, including a Panama-flagged coal-laden carrier entering the waterway and another commodity Marshall Islands-flagged vessel exiting, shipping data from Kpler showed, down from eight vessels a day earlier.

Roughly 130 to 140 ships would typically transit the waterway before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28 and Iran responded by closing the strait.

In the Bab el-Mandeb, only one commodity vessel, a Bahamas-flagged dry bulk carrier, crossed the strait on Wednesday, Kpler data showed, down from 20 the previous day.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Wednesday they had launched a missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of the kingdom's Red Sea port city of Yanbu and another missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

There was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia on either incident.

The Houthis have imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea since last month in response to what they described as a Saudi siege on Yemen, an allegation Riyadh has denied.

-Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Lincoln Feast/Reuters