Four sailors were killed in a suspected Houthi attack on the Egyptian-owned cargo ship Tihamah in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen’s transport ministry said. Three of the dead were Pakistani and one was Indonesian. Reuters said this was the first fatality in Houthi attacks on ships since the war against Iran began. On the same Tuesday, the US military attacked a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman that it said was attempting to breach a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said the Tihamah was carrying military equipment for Saudi Arabia, though Saudi authorities gave no immediate comment. The US military said the Panama-flagged vessel failed to stop despite repeated warnings. A US Navy helicopter then fired two Hellfire missiles, disabling the ship’s steering system.

Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei said the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen to shipping unless the United States accepted Iranian conditions, including releasing seized Iranian assets and ending war across the region. Reuters reported that only six ships passed through Hormuz on Monday, compared with 130 to 140 daily before the war. Oil prices rose and global stocks fell amid uncertainty over diplomatic efforts to end the five-month conflict.