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2 Filipinos among crewmember­s killed in Houthi’s 1st fatal assault on shipping

- By Jon Gambrell & Tara Copp The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday killed three of its crewmember­s and forced survivors to abandon the vessel, the US military said. It was the first fatal strike in a campaign of assaults by the Iranian-backed group over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The attack on the Barbadosfl­agged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence further escalates the conflict on a crucial maritime route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe that has disrupted global shipping. The Houthis have launched attacks since November, and the US began an airstrike campaign in January that so far hasn’t halted their attacks.

“One Vietnamese and two Filipino crewmember­s have lost their lives,” a statement from the owners and managers of the True Confidence said early Thursday. “A further two Filipino crewmember­s have suffered serious injuries. All crewmember­s were taken to Djibouti.”

Meanwhile, Iran announced Wednesday that it would confiscate a $50 million cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. aboard a tanker it seized nearly a year earlier. It is the latest twist in a yearslong shadow war playing out in the Middle East’s waterways even before the Houthi attacks began.

The US military’s Central Command said an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from a Houthicont­rolled area in Yemen struck the True Confidence, causing significan­t damage to the ship. In addition to the three deaths, at least four crewmember­s were wounded, with three in critical condition.

Two aerial photos released by the US military showed the ship’s bridge and cargo on board ablaze.

“These reckless attacks by the Houthis have disrupted global trade and taken the lives of internatio­nal seafarers simply doing their jobs, which are some of the hardest jobs in the world, and the ones relied on by the global public for sustainmen­t of supply chains,” Central Command said.

The attack came after the ship had been hailed over radio by men claiming to be the Yemeni military, officials said. The Houthis have been hailing ships over the radio in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since beginning their attacks, with analysts suspecting the rebels want to seize the vessels.

After the missile hit, the crew abandoned the ship and deployed lifeboats. A US warship and the Indian navy were on the scene, trying to assist in rescue efforts.

The ship’s managers and owners said the ship’s crew of 20 included one Indian, 15 Filipinos and four Vietnamese. Three armed guards, two from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal, also were on board. The ship had been carrying steel from China to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Philippine­s’ Migrant Workers Department confirmed the deaths and the number of wounded from the attack.

The Philippine­s “calls for continued diplomatic efforts to deescalate tensions and to address the causes of the current conflict in the Middle East,” it said.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack in a prerecorde­d message, saying its missile fire set the vessel ablaze. He said the rebels’ attacks would only stop when the “siege on the Palestinia­n people in the Gaza is lifted.”

The United Nations called on the Houthis “to cease all attacks against internatio­nal shipping in the Red Sea,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, expressing serious concern about the continuing attacks, including the latest incident where the status of the crew is unknown.

Dujarric said the attacks are causing risks “to property, to life, to ecology in the area.”

At the State Department in Washington, spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the attack. “We continue to watch these reckless attacks with no regard for the well being of innocent civilians who are transiting through the Red Sea. And now they have, unfortunat­ely and tragically, killed innocent civilians,” he told reporters.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-pierre separately warned: “The US obviously is going to continue to take action.”

The rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surroundin­g waters over the Israelhama­s war, but up to Wednesday hadn’t killed any crewmember­s. The vessels have included at least one with cargo bound for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthicont­rolled territory.

Despite more than a month and a half of Us-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels have remained capable of launching significan­t attacks. They include the attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which sank on Saturday after drifting for several days, and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

It was unclear why the Houthis targeted the True Confidence. However, it had previously been owned by Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based fund that finances vessels on installmen­ts. Oaktree declined to comment.

The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014. They’ve battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a long-stalemated war there.

Iran separately announced the seizure of the crude oil aboard the Advantage Sweet through an announceme­nt carried by the judiciary’s state-run Mizan news agency. At the time, Iran alleged that the Advantage Sweet collided with another ship, without offering any evidence.

The court order for the seizure offered an entirely different reason for the confiscati­on. Mizan said it was part of a court order over US sanctions it alleged barred the importatio­n of a Swedish medicine used to treat patients suffering from epidermoly­sis bullosa, a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over the body and eyes. It didn’t reconcile the different reasons for the seizure.

The Advantage Sweet had been in the Persian Gulf in late April, but its track showed no unusual behavior as it transited through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of all traded oil passes. Iran has made allegation­s in other seizures that later fell apart as it became clear that Tehran was trying to leverage the capture as a bargaining chip to negotiate with foreign nations.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, said Wednesday that the Advantage Sweet had been “seized under false pretenses” and that the company “has not had any direct communicat­ion with Iran over the seizure of the vessel.”

“Chevron has not been permitted access to the vessel and considers the cargo a total loss due to Iran’s illegal actions,” Chevron said in a statement. “We now consider the cargo the responsibi­lity of the Iranian government.”

Ship seizures and explosions have roiled the region since 2019. The incidents began after then President Donald Trump unilateral­ly withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Copp reported from Washington. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contribute­d to this report.

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