Seven Indian nationals are missing in Yemen after air strikes hit their boats, as a Saudi-led coalition steps up attacks against the Arab impoverished country, the Indian foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Seven Indian nationals are missing in Yemen after air strikes hit their boats, as a Saudi-led coalition steps up attacks against the Arab impoverished country, the Indian foreign ministry said Wednesday.

One of the boats was travelling across the Red Sea from the Somalian port of Berbera to Mokha in Yemen when it came under fire on Tuesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.    

"The boats were carrying a total of 20 Indian crew members of which 13 are alive and seven are reported missing," Vikas Swarup told reporters in New Delhi.

Indian embassy officials are in contact with local authorities and are due to meet the owner of one of the boats in a bid to gain more information, including on the fate of the seven, Swarup said.

The comments came after media reports on Tuesday of 20 Indians killed in air strikes on fuel smugglers in Yemen.

Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition. Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.

Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
India closed it embassy in Yemen one month later and evacuated more than 4,500 nationals.

The Saudi-led coalition has increased its air strikes in Yemen since a deadly missile attack launched by the Yemeni army and the popular committees on a coalition military gathering which killed at least 60 soldiers in the eastern province of Marib.  

The coalition states admitted that 60 soldiers were killed in the Toshka operation in Safer, including 45 Emiratis, 10 Saudis and 5 Bahrainis.

However, Yemeni military sources confirmed, based on special information, that the death toll from Safer coalition military camp in Ma'rib province reached 300 soldiers and officers of Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini and other nationalities, the Lebanese National News Agency reported Sunday.