Houthis hit Saudi tankers in Red Sea as US warns of 'major military punishment' against Iran

Fire broke out on the bow of the Saudi-flagged oil tanker Encelia after it was struck by a missile in the Red Sea late on Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency confirmed, as the Iran-backed Houthi movement of Yemen escalated its maritime campaign against the kingdom. All crew members were reported safe, but the attack – which also targeted a second tanker, the Layla, with missiles and drones – prompted US President Donald Trump to warn on Thursday that if the Houthis struck again, the US would inflict 'major military punishment' upon both them and Iran. The warning came on the 12th consecutive night of US Central Command air strikes on Iranian coastal radar, drone and missile bases, a campaign that has killed two people according to Iranian state media, as Jordan and Kuwait intercepted missiles and drones launched by Iran. The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said the group would 'continue their naval operations against the Saudi enemy' and 'persist in enforcing the siege for a siege equation', after it claimed to have turned back 10 other vessels by warning them to avoid Saudi ports. The attacks threaten to choke off the Bab El Mandeb strait, the main maritime route from Europe to Asia, adding to the disruption caused by Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz – a crisis that sent the price of Brent crude oil to $100 a barrel for the first time since May. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned the UK that any base used to attack it was a 'legitimate target', following reports that US long-range B-1 bombers used in the strikes had flown out of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. In its response, the UK government said: 'Our Armed Forces are ready to keep the United Kingdom safe from any kind of attacks, whether it’s on our soil or from abroad.' It added that new Prime Minister Andy Burnham had been notified of the extension of an existing agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region, including defensive operations to degrade missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Saudi Arabia had been shipping millions of barrels of oil a day via its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea terminal at Yanbu' Al-Bahr, then south past Yemen. Now, the Houthi threat leaves that route in peril, and Trump’s vow to 'take care of the Houthis' – as he put it – has not worked before.