The Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed an attack on two oil tankers from Saudi Arabia on Thursday as part of a special military operation, further escalating recently heightened tensions between the terrorist group and the Saudi-backed anti-Houthi coalition.

The strikes on the vessels in the Red Sea from the Iran-backed terrorist group threaten to deepen the Iran war throughout the Middle East, by dangling a possible new front in the conflict between the Yemeni and Saudi groups, as their delicate peace from a 2022 ceasefire hangs on by a thread. The morning of the Houthi attack, already-rising oil prices — in part from the spread of Iranian airstrikes to other countries in the Middle East in July — took another jump.