A vessel has come under attack from three boats with three or four people aboard south of Yemen's coastal town of Nishtun with shots being fired at the vessel.

Britain's Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported the attack on Friday without further details on the vessel or the perpetrators.

The Gulf of Aden is a crucial route for global trade and has seen numerous attacks attributed to Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels amid the civil war in the country as well as the proxy war between Tehran and Riyadh.

The region was also once plagued with Somali pirate attacks, but they have significantly decreased in recent years. It is not clear if the Friday attack is the work of Houthis or pirates.

Nishtun is held by forces allied to Yemen's internationally recognized government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, but Houthi attacks have happened there before such as in December 2020.

The attack occurred a day after Iran’s navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman amid wider tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet.

Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait and was carrying crude for Chevron to Houston, Texas.