Port security

Elevated threat to marine hulls, cargo, and port infrastructure in Saudi Arabia's Jizan province from Yemen-based insurgents

The Saudi interior ministry spokesperson announced that on 25 April 2017 Saudi forces had opened fire on, and disabled, a remotely controlled craft carrying high-grade explosives off Aramco's Jizan bulk plant terminal and petrochemicals complex, approximately 57 km north of the Saudi-Yemeni border.

According to the Saudi statement, the maritime border protection force tracked the vessel as it left a small island in Yemeni territorial waters, after which it accelerated to a speed of 34 knots heading for the terminal. It was intercepted one and a half nautical miles from the intended target. This is the second such attack using a remotely controlled explosives-rigged craft by Yemen-based insurgents, probably Houthi-aligned forces, as claimed by Saudi authorities, albeit the first inside the Kingdom's territorial waters.

Separate to the unmanned craft threat, local and national Yemeni and Gulf media, citing Yemeni officials and local military commanders, have been reporting the use of sea mines by Houthi-aligned forces near Mocha and Midi ports in Taiz and Hajjah provinces respectively.