Houthis kill two sailors in first Red Sea shipping deaths
AT LEAST two sailors have been killed by a Houthi attack on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, marking the first loss of life in months of highly disruptive attacks on global shipping.
The missile caused significant damage to the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned M/V True Confidence, according to a US official, adding that it was the fifth anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in two days.
The British embassy in Yemen confirmed the two deaths on Wednesday. It said: “This was the sad but inevitable consequence of the Houthis recklessly firing missiles at international shipping. They must stop.”
A US defence official said: “Today, the Houthis have killed innocent civilians,” adding the crew “reports at least two fatalities and six injured crew members and have abandoned the ship”.
The vessel was struck about 50 nautical miles to the south west of the Yemeni port of Aden and was drifting and ablaze. Details of the two sailors are not known and the status of 20 crew and three armed guards on board, who included 15 Filipinos, four Vietnamese, two Sri Lankans, an Indian and a Nepali national, is unknown.
An unnamed US official told Reuters the damage to the vessel was not clear but the crew fled the ship and deployed lifeboats. Vessels in the vicinity reported “a loud bang and a large plume of smoke”, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British maritime security agency.
Yemen’s Houthi militants, who have been targeting ships in the Red Sea for months claiming they were attacking Israel-linked assets in solidarity with people of Gaza, on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack but stopped short of admitting the loss of life.
The group wrote on X, formally Twitter: “The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out a targeted operation against the American ship [True Confidence] in the Gulf of Aden, with a number of appropriate naval missiles.” They insist they acted against the “American-british aggression against our country”.
Houthi attacks in November forced shipping companies to abandon navigation through the Red Sea, which triggered lengthier and costlier journeys.
Four days ago, the Rubymar, a Uk-owned bulk carrier, became the first ship to sink as a result of a Houthi attack, after floating for two weeks with damage from a missile strike. All crew were safely evacuated from that vessel.
The US in December announced the creation of a joint naval protection force in the south of the Red Sea in a bid to stave off the attacks and restore merchant shipping in the area but the Houthi attacks persisted.