Yemen's Houthis seize ship in Red Sea: Saudi-led coalition

TheSaudi-ledcoalitionfighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said on Monday theHouthishadseized a vessel towing a South Korean drilling rig at the southern end of theRedSea.

The vessel wasseized late on Sunday by armedHouthis,Coalitionspokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried bySaudistate media. He did not say how many crew members were onboard theship.

South Korea said two of its vessels were captured, a tug boat and a sand dredger, each of which had one South Korean national was on board.

Four other crew members of unknown nationalities were also on board, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

Both vessels were owned by South Korean builder Woongjin Development, a company official told Reuters.

Another 10 foreign nationals were onboard a towing vessel that belongs toSaudiArabia which wasseized along with the two South Korean vessels, the South Korean ministry said.

A South Korean navyshipthat has been conducting anti-piracy operations in the ArabianSeanear Oman has been orderedto deploy to the area where the vessels wereseized, the ministry said.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a senior Houthi official told Reuters the group's forces hadseized a "suspect vessel" in theRedSeaand said the crew were being treated well.

"Yemeni coast guards ... are checking to see whether (theship) belongs to the countries of aggression or to South Korea, in which case it will be released after completing legal procedures," he said.

TheHouthis' Al-Masirah TV said threeships had beenseized near Uqban island, including one belongs toSaudiArabia, and taken to the Yemeni port of Salif.

Thecoalitionspokesman said the seizure of theshipwas a "terrorist operation" that posed a threat to the freedom of international navigation and world trade.

TheSaudi-ledalliance intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against theHouthisafter the group ousted the internationally recognised government from power in the capital Sanaa.

Houthi forces have been driven away from most ofYemen'scoast over the course of the conflict but still hold Hodeidah, the country's biggestRedSeaport and base of the group's navy.

TheHouthishave in the past targeted vessels off Yemen, which lies on one side of the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the southern mouth of theRedSea, one of the world's most heavily travelledoil tanker routes.