Yemen's Houthi forces say they shot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone over the country's northwestern region on Sunday, releasing footage that appears to show burning wreckage of the aircraft. The incident came a day after the Iran-backed group claimed strikes on facilities belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the Red Sea coastal cities of Jizan and Yanbu — an escalation that has sent shockwaves through global energy shipping routes.
Shipping data from commodity analytics firm Kpler shows that only 11 vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Sunday, July 26 — the lowest daily figure in months. The Bab el-Mandeb is a narrow chokepoint between Yemen and the Horn of Africa that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which a significant share of global oil exports flows. Seven of those vessels were oil tankers; among those exiting the Red Sea was the Hong Kong-flagged supertanker New Explorer, carrying two million barrels of Saudi and Emirati crude bound for China's Ningbo port. A separate supertanker, New Pearl, also carrying two million barrels of Saudi crude, was heading to Zhoushan — making it the fourth Chinese supertanker to leave the Red Sea since the Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi exports.
At the same time, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the critical Persian Gulf chokepoint between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula — remained depressed, with fewer than 10 commodity vessels transiting daily over the weekend. This is notable even given that the United States and Iran have paused direct strikes against each other in the broader regional conflict. Several vessels passed through on Saturday with their transponders switched off, a practice that makes tracking difficult and raises concerns about sanctions compliance.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree confirmed the group struck Aramco sites on Saturday, framing the campaign as an effort to blockade Saudi oil exports. The disruption has already pushed physical crude prices in the Middle East, Europe and Africa to two-month highs. The simultaneous pressure on both the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz is significant: together, these two waterways handle a substantial portion of the world's seaborne oil trade, and their simultaneous disruption poses a serious risk to global energy supply chains.
The downing of the Saudi drone — if confirmed — marks a further intensification of Houthi operations against Saudi Arabia, a country that has been in intermittent conflict with the group since 2015. It signals that the Houthis are not only targeting maritime routes but also asserting air-defence capabilities over Yemeni territory, complicating any potential Saudi or allied response to the ongoing campaign against energy infrastructure.