Ship traffic through Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb straits drops sharply

The number of vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz waterways declined significantly on Wednesday compared with previous days, AzerNEWS reports, citing Reuters.

According to maritime monitoring platform Kpler, only two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, compared with eight ships the previous day.

Before the outbreak of the US-Iran war in February, approximately 130-140 vessels passed through the strategic waterway each day.

Kpler data also showed that only one cargo vessel passed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday. The previous day, the figure stood at 20 vessels.

Roughly 130 to 140 ships would typically transit the ?waterway before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28 and Iran responded by closing the strait.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Wednesday they had launched a missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of the kingdom's ?Red Sea port ?city of ?Yanbu and another missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf ?of Aden.

There was no confirmation from ?Saudi ?Arabia on either incident.