The US Office of Naval Intelligence has warned commercial ships from the risks of sea mines planted by Al-Houthi militias in the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab near the entrance to the port of Mokha. The Office said in its report that the attacks on ships in the strait, especially commercial ones, stimulate other effective bodies to intervene, pointing out that the US navy will necessarily assume the leading role in any effort to protect the freedom of ship navigation, stressing that the closure of such this waterway would lead to substantial increases in total energy costs and global oil prices. The Strait of Bab All-Mandab whose width amounts to 25 km acquires a great importance for global navigation through which commercial ships move from the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, then to the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the crowded passages to transfer oil in the Middle East and other regions, and is crossed daily by more than sixty commercial ships and transfers 3,300,000 barrels of oil per day. The coup militias have carried out attacks in Bab Al-Mandab, in the last month, the militias attacked a Saudi frigate, and before that they targeted an Emirates relief ship, and in October 2016, they targeted US Navy patrol ships.
