DOHA (Reuters) - A Saudi-led force in Yemen said it rescued passengers on Saturday from a vessel being used by the United Arab Emirates military that was attacked by Houthi fighters in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane.

“The coalition rescued civilians from a vessel targeted by Houthi militias ... that was transferring medical aid to the city of Aden and evacuating wounded civilians for treatment,” the coalition said in a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.

Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in an Arab alliance have been fighting Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis, who control the capital, and training Yemeni troops in Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The UAE military said on Saturday one of its vessels had been involved in an “incident” near the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen’s southern coast but none of its crew had been hurt.

The Houthis, however, said on Saturday their forces had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing toward the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha.

“Armed forces destroyed with a missile a military vessel belonging to the forces of the UAE,” a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba Yemeni news agency, run by the dominant Houthi movement since it seized Sanaa last year.

In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20 km (12 mile) wide Bab al-Mandab strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A senior Emirati commander was among dozens killed in a Tochka rocket strike in 2015 on an army camp near Bab al-Mandab, one of the bloodiest setbacks for Gulf forces in months of fighting.</s>Yemeni forces have targeted and destroyed an Emirati military vessel in a rocket attack near the Red Sea port city of Mokha, al-Masirah TV says.

A military source said Ansarullah fighters and allied army forces launched rockets at an HSV-2 Swift hybrid catamaran operated by the Emirati navy off the shores of the Red Sea port city of Mokha early on Saturday, al-Masirah television reported.

The catamaran was reportedly a high-speed logistical ship capable of locating mines, controlling military operations and transporting troops and equipment. The vessel formerly belonged to the US navy, al-Masirah said.

Ansarullah fighters working in cooperation with the Yemeni army have so far destroyed several hostile warships and boats.

On October 10, 2015, Yemeni army forces destroyed a Saudi warship in a missile attack in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. That development came only three days after Yemeni forces managed to destroy another Saudi vessel in the area.

Emirati casualties

The United Arab Emirates has been suffering heavy casualties in Yemen, where Ansarullah fighters and allied military units have been fighting back the Saudi-led invaders.

On Jun 13, an Emirati military helicopter crashed near the al-Buraiqeh coast of the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, killing its two pilots.

Yemeni boys hold a part of an Emirati Mirage warplane that crashed in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden, March 14, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

On March 14, two Emirati pilots died when their Mirage fighter jet crashed while conducting military operations in the same Yemeni district.

A senior Emirati military commander and three Saudi-backed foreign mercenaries had been killed in an attack by Yemeni forces in the Dhubab district of the southwestern province of Ta’izz two months earlier.

The biggest casualties, however, came last September, when the UAE confirmed that at least 52 of its soldiers had been killed in a barrage of missiles fired by Yemeni forces at Saudi-led foreign troopers in the central Ma’rib Province. At least 70 soldiers were also injured in the missile attack.

The official Saudi Press Agency, meanwhile, reported the death of one of its border guards, who was killed after a mortar shell fell on the southwestern border region of Jizan in Saudi Arabia from the direction of Yemen on Thursday.

In a separate development, a massive bombing reportedly targeted the Craiter district in the southwestern Yemeni province of Aden, killing two people and injuring three others.</s>The vessel, an Australian-built high speed logistics catamaran under lease to the United Arab Emirates military, was attacked by Houthi fighters near the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen's southern coast on Saturday. The coalition rescued its civilian passengers. No crew were hurt.

In a statement late on Saturday, the coalition said the vessel belonged to the UAE Marine Dredging Company "on its usual route to and from Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians to complete their treatment outside Yemen."

"Coalition air and naval forces were targeting Houthi militia boats involved in the attack," it said.

The coalition said the incident showed that Houthi tactics involved what it called "terrorist attacks" against civilian international navigation in the waterway.

Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in an Arab alliance have been fighting Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis, who control the capital, and training Yemeni troops in Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Houthis, however, said on Saturday their forces had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing toward the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha.

"Armed forces destroyed with a missile a military vessel belonging to the forces of the UAE," a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba Yemeni news agency, run by the dominant Houthi movement since it seized Sanaa last year.

In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20 km (12 mile) wide Bab al-Mandab strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A senior Emirati commander was among dozens killed in a Tochka rocket strike in 2015 on an army camp near Bab al-Mandab, one of the bloodiest setbacks for Gulf forces in months of fighting.</s>Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in a Saudi-led coalition have been fighting Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis who control the capital and training Yemeni troops in the port of Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

"General Command of the Armed Forces said one of its leased vessels suffered an incident in the Bab al-Mandab strait this morning during a return trip from a mission in Aden. No injures were caused," UAE state news agency WAM said in a statement.

The armed forces are investigating the cause of the incident, it added.

In a statement on Saturday the Houthis said their forces had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing towards the the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha.

"Armed forces destroyed with a missile a military vessel belonging to the forces of the UAE," a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba Yemeni news agency, which has been run by the dominant Houthi movement since it seized Sanaa last year.

In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20 km (12 mile) wide Bab al-Mandab, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition could not be immediately reached for comment.

A senior Emirati commander was among dozens killed in a Tochka rocket strike in 2015 on an army camp near Bab al-Mandab, one of the bloodiest setbacks for Gulf forces in months of fighting.</s>Yemeni rebels claimed they hit a vessel Saturday operated by the Emirati military, which is part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of Yemen’s government.

The UAE military said a boat under its command was involved in an “incident” in the Bab al-Mandab strait. It said there were no casualties.

“Rockets targeted an Emirati warship as it approached the coast of Mokha,” on the Red Sea, the Iran-backed Huthi rebels said in a statement on their sabanews.net website.

“It was completely destroyed,” they said.

In a statement published by the official WAM news agency, the Emirati military said the boat was on a routine trip from Aden, further south, and that it had launched an investigation.

It said the boat was hired, but did not provide more details or say if the vessel was damaged.

The UAE is a key member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been battling Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies since March last year in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognised government.

Since March 2015, the coalition has pushed the rebels out of much of Yemen’s south, but they still control nearly all of the country’s Red Sea coast as well as swathes of territory around the capital Sanaa.

Loyalist forces recaptured Perim island in the Bab al-Mandab strait in October last year, gaining a foothold on the strategic shipping lane which connects the Suez Canal and Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

But the rebels still control some of the heights which overlook the strait from the mainland, where there has been fierce fighting in recent days.

Military sources in Yemen told AFP that the rebels shelled a loyalist military camp in the Bab al-Mandab area on Saturday.

More than 6,700 people, including civilians, have been killed in the Yemeni conflict since the coalition began its air campaign in March 2015, the UN says.</s>A Houthi spokesperson told CNN the Iranian-allied group was responsible for Saturday's attack, which occurred as the vessel headed for the port city of Aden.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition, which has been fighting in support of the Yemeni government under President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, called the attack a "dangerous indication" and launched a rescue mission for those aboard the stricken ship.

The vessel, owned by the UAE's National Marine Dredging Company, was reportedly delivering medical aid and other supplies when it came under fire in the Bab al-Mandab Strait -- which lies between the southern tip of Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa -- according to the WAM report.

''This comes as a serious indicator to confirm the orientation of these militias to carry out terrorist operations targeting the international navigation and relief ships in Bab al-Mandab Strait," the coalition said in a statement posted on WAM.

But Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the Houthi fighters, said he did not believe the ship was carrying aid material. "In any case, the Yemeni people consider the Emiratis and Saudis their enemies and so anything belonging to them is a legitimate target," said al-Bukhaiti, speaking to CNN by phone Sunday from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is run by Houthi rebels since they seized it last year. The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV published a video that purported to show the moment of attack. CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage. The southern port city of Aden functions as the de facto capital of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government after they were pushed out of Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition, which is made up of several Arab countries including the UAE, began a military campaign aimed at restoring the Yemeni government and preventing the Houthis and forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking power. US military distances itself from Saudi-led war in Yemen Sanaa has suffered some 45 airstrikes over the past 24 hours, according to multiple witnesses. That's the most intense barrage on Sanaa since last June, according to Yemeni Journalist Hakim Almasmari. At this time there is no indication of a connection between the strike on the Emirati vessel and the Sanaa airstrikes. At least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the conflict began in March 2015, according to UN figures. The violence has also displaced three million Yemenis and forced 200,000 to seek refuge abroad.
Houthi forces launch rockets that hit and reportedly destroy HSV-2 Swift, a military vessel belonging to the United Arab Emirates Navy, off the coast of Yemen, near the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha.