Two Pakistanis and an Indonesian national were killed in a Houthi missile strike on a commercial ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Saudi state-owned Al Hadath reported on Tuesday morning.
Bab el-Mandeb is located between Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Reuters later confirmed the incident with two Yemeni coast guard sources and two government military officials, though the nationalities of the three crew members were not mentioned.
Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Tuesday afternoon stated that a cargo vessel was struck by an unknown projectile off the coast of Al Mokha, Yemen.
UKMTO added that authorities are investigating the incident.
Container ship struck by missile in Gulf of Oman
Additionally on Tuesday, UKMTO said it received a report of an incident involving a container ship and military forces in the Gulf of Oman, after the vessel type was changed from tanker to container ship.
Maritime security sources said the container ship is believed to have been hit by a missile off the coast of Pakistan.
According to initial assessments, the Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova was believed to have been hit by a missile when sailing through the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday, some 71 nautical miles off Pakistan's coast, British maritime risk management group Vanguard and a maritime security source said separately.