Summary
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized a Saudi-flagged tug and two South Korean vessels at the weekend, the insurgents and Seoul officials said Tuesday.
The incident follows a lull in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as one Riyadh official said the kingdom had established an "open channel" with the rebels in a bid to end the four-year conflict.
The Houthis acknowledged they had seized three ships, including a Saudi one, in the Red Sea a few miles off Uqban island, west of the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
It added that a total of 16 crew, two of them South Korean, had been taken to the Red Sea port of Saleef, where they were being held by the rebels.
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