Yemeni rebel "suicide" boats attacked a Saudi warship on patrol in the Red Sea, killing two sailors in a rare naval clash in the nearly two-year-old war, the Saudi-led coalition said.
The assault off the rebel-held port city of Hodeida came as government forces backed by the coalition pressed a deadly drive up the Red Sea coast despite mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.
"A Saudi frigate came under a terrorist attack by three suicide boats belonging to the Huthi militias," the coalition said late yesterday without specifying when the incident occurred.
Suicide attacks are uncharacteristic of the Shiite Muslim Huthi rebels. They are normally the work of Sunni extremists of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.
Although the Saudi warship "dealt with the boats," one of them "collided with the back of the ship and exploded and caused a fire," which the crew brought under control, the coalition said..
As a result of the incident, two Saudi crewmen lost their lives and three were wounded, the coalition said, adding the frigate was able to resume its patrol.
In purported video of the attack shown on the rebels' Al-Masirah television website, the stern of a warship exploded in a large fireball.
The rebels claimed responsibility for the attack without specifying how the vessel was targeted.
"It was hit with precision after an accurate surveillance operation off the western coast," a rebel military official said in a statement.
In October the rebels fired rockets towards an American destroyer, prompting the US Navy to retaliate with cruise missiles against mobile radar sites in Huthi-controlled territory.
Since it began air strikes in March 2015, the coalition has imposed an air and sea blockade of rebel-held areas.
It has carried out patrols of the Red Sea to prevent what it says is attempted arms smuggling to the rebels by Shiite Iran.
Before government forces launched a major offensive on January 7, the rebels controlled virtually all of Yemen's 450 kilometre long Red Sea coastline.
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