Three people have reportedly been killed in a Houthi attack on a small cargo ship in the Red Sea, in what would be the first deadly strike by the group on a vessel since the US and Israel started a conflict against Iran.

The ship is reported to have been hit by a projectile south of the Yemeni port of Mocha causing casualties, the UK’s Maritime Trade Operations Centre has said.

Yemen’s Houthis are allied to Iran and enjoy Tehran’s full support. They began attacks on shipping last month – announcing a naval blockade of Saudi ports.

The conflict in the region has been ongoing since the end of February, punctuated by a faltering ceasefire which was meant to lead to a deal to end the war.

It has whipped up regional tensions, with the Houthis also attacking Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and oil facilities, in parallel with Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz – the vital waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas used to transit.

The 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.

Social media images examined by BBC Verify appear to show a damaged cargo ship in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which sits at the inlet of the Red Sea, off the coast of Yemen.

Reports from Yemeni media say that two of those killed were crew on the ship, including one Pakistani and one Indonesian.

A Yemeni government vessel subsequently went to assist and came under fire which resulted in an additional casualty, whose nationality is not known.

Close-up pictures show the vessel is named Tihamah which, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, is in the Red Sea off Warner Point and is sailing under the flag of Tanzania.

The pictures, which were shared by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, have been verified as new and show no signs of AI-generation.