Saudi-Led Coalition Calls Tanker Attacks in Gulf a Major Escalation

Tracking map tells tale of tankers in suspected attack in Gulf of Oman. REUTERS

RIYADH, June 13 (Reuters) – The attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday are a “major escalation”, the spokesman for a Saudi-led military coalition battling the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said.

“From my perspective … we can connect it to the Houthi attacks at Bab al-Mandeb,” Colonel Turki al-Malki told reporters in Riyadh, referring to attacks in July 2018 on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea strait blamed on the Houthi movement.


(Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Toby Chopra)