Six people have been killed and 10 injured after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, Yemen’s internationally recognised government says. The country’s transport ministry said the vessel was hit by three ballistic missiles south of the port of Mocha, setting the ship on fire.

Four crew members were killed in the initial strike – three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian. Yemen’s coastguard later said a second missile strike targeted rescuers attempting to evacuate people from the vessel.

The Houthis said they had targeted a ship carrying Saudi military equipment. It was the group’s first deadly attack on a vessel since the US and Israel began striking Iran on 28 February.

The Yemeni government said the vessel was carrying food and described the attack on a commercial ship as an escalation by the Houthis. Images showed a damaged cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen.

Maritime risk management company Vanguard said the Yemeni Navy had deployed to help the vessel but came under fire. Three people were injured in that incident.

Close-up images show the ship’s name as Tihamah.

Ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic places the vessel in the Red Sea off Warner Point and says it is owned by an Egyptian operator.

Vanguard said the vessel was sailing under the Tanzanian flag. Yemen’s transport ministry referred to the vessel as a “Yemeni commercial ship”, while earlier reports in Iranian media described it as “Saudi-affiliated”.

Images of the damaged ship were published by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency. The images have been verified as recent and showed no signs of having been generated using artificial intelligence.

The Houthis said the vessel was carrying Saudi military equipment. The group launched attacks on shipping last month after announcing a naval blockade of Saudi ports.

The latest attack comes after a years-long truce in Yemen’s civil war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government collapsed last month.

The Houthis control much of north-western Yemen and have frequently clashed with government forces. The internationally recognised government operates from the southern city of Aden because the capital, Sanaa, remains under Houthi control.

The conflict in the wider region has continued for more than five months, despite a faltering ceasefire that was intended to lead to a deal to end the war. Tensions have also risen as the Houthis have attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and oil facilities.

At the same time, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits.

The latest strike is likely to increase concerns about the security of commercial shipping through the Red Sea and surrounding waters.