Human Rights Watch says recent Houthi attacks on commercial ships likely amount to war crimes
Yemen Herald News 
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden likely amount to war crimes in at least three cases.
The attacks followed the Houthis’ announcement on July 20 that they would impose a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia, the organisation said.
The Houthis described the embargo as a response to what they called a Saudi sea and air blockade of Yemen. The group controls the country’s northwest.
The vessels named in the report included two Saudi-flagged ships, a Tanzania-flagged ship and a Dominica-flagged ship.
“The Houthis are once again putting seafarers’ lives at deadly risk through their attacks on commercial ships, this time as part of their hostilities with the Saudi-led coalition,” said Niku Jafarnia, the organisation’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher.
“Whatever the geopolitics, attacks on civilian crews carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes,” Jafarnia said.
The Houthis said by Aug. 24 that they had targeted at least nine vessels since July 20, according to the report.
Saudi and Yemeni authorities, a shipping company and a ship’s master confirmed four of those attacks, on the Encelia, the Daisy, the Tihamah and the Amzan, Human Rights Watch said.
The Houthis claimed a military objective in only one of the four, the Tihamah, which they said carried Saudi military equipment.
That attack was the deadliest. The Tihamah, a Tanzanian-flagged deck cargo ship, was hit on Aug. 11 in the Bab al-Mandab strait.
Yemen’s Transport Ministry said the vessel was struck by three consecutive ballistic missiles.
At least four crew members were killed, three of them Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian, along with two rescuers from the Yemeni Coast Guard. At least 10 other people were injured. Human Rights Watch cited reporting by The Associated Press and a statement by Pakistan’s foreign minister.
Wadah al-Dubaish, a spokesman for government-aligned joint forces on Yemen’s west coast, said that morning that a civilian ferry carrying passengers and food supplies had been hit near Bab al-Mandab.
The Transport Ministry said the Tihamah was a commercial civilian vessel carrying food supplies. Human Rights Watch said it could not confirm the cargo.
The organisation said it wrote to the Houthis on Sept. 7 asking for evidence of military targets aboard the ship. It received no reply.
The three other confirmed attacks caused no casualties.
The Houthis said on July 23 that they had struck two Saudi-flagged oil tankers the previous day, among them the Encelia, using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.
The Saudi Press Agency, citing the Transport General Authority, said the Encelia was hit and caught fire at the bow. The authority said all crew members were safe and that the vessel had been secured.
On Aug. 5 the master of the Daisy, a Dominica-flagged oil tanker, reported a loud explosion in the Gulf of Aden, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said. Shockwaves caused minor damage. The crew was unhurt.
Tracking data showed the tanker later continued to Djibouti.
On Aug. 24 the Houthis said they had hit the Amzan, a Saudi-flagged oil tanker, with a ballistic missile. Its operator, Bahri, confirmed an incident an hour later and said all crew were accounted for, with no injuries.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency and a vessel’s operating company said a fifth ship, the NCC Masa, was targeted in the Red Sea on July 24. The Houthis did not claim that attack.
Human Rights Watch said it reviewed data from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and from vessel-tracking sites, and verified photographs and video taken after the strike on the Tihamah.
It said it wrote to the operators and the owner of the four vessels and received no responses.
The Saudi-led coalition struck sites on July 25 that its spokesman, Turki al-Malki, said the Houthis had used to threaten shipping in the Red Sea. Human Rights Watch said it had not investigated those strikes.
International humanitarian law requires parties to a conflict to verify that a target is a military objective and to take precautions to limit civilian harm.
Attacks are also governed by proportionality, which bars strikes expected to cause civilian harm excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated.
The report was published as fighting on Yemen’s Red Sea coast widened. Houthi forces took the port of Mokha on Sept. 10 and Perim Island the following day, and captured the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands on Monday, government and Houthi officials told The Associated Press.
The United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including more than 2,000 who crossed by boat to Djibouti.
Yemen’s Human Rights Ministry said about 150 civilians have been killed and more than 200 wounded in fighting since Sept. 3.
The Houthis have attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023. The group seized the Galaxy Leader, a Bahamas-registered vehicles carrier, that month and held its 25 crew members for more than a year. It still holds the ship.
Human Rights Watch found at the time that those attacks were likely war crimes as well.
“Civilian crew members should not have to put their lives at risk to carry out their jobs,” Jafarnia said.
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