Three dead, five injured as Houthis strike ship in Gulf of Aden

At least five crew-members were seriously injured after The True Confidence caught fire and crew were forced to abandon ship which Houthis claim was US owned.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) defeating a combination of Houthi missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the Red Sea. Picture: US Navy/AFP.

At least three people on board a Barbados-flagged ship died after it was struck in an attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthis on Wednesday, the UK government and shipping executives said, the first known loss of life since the rebel group began attacking ships in the Red Sea region in late November.

The bulk carrier True Confidence caught fire after being hit early Wednesday local time by a missile as it sailed 50 nautical miles southwest of Aden, forcing the crew to abandon the ship, the vessel’s managers and owners said in a joint statement.

At least three people were killed and five seriously injured in the attack, said the U.K. Embassy in Yemen and Ellie Shafik, head of intelligence at British maritime-security data company Vanguard Tech. Several sailors were also injured, according to shipping executives and a U.S. defence official.

The Iran-backed Yemen-based Houthis, who have attacked commercial ships since November in what they say is retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza, said they h`ad targeted the vessel because of what the group claimed was its US ownership.

Any current US connection was denied in the joint statement by the ship’s managers, Third January Maritime of Greece and FML Ship Management of Cyprus, and its owner, True Confidence Shipping of Liberia. The vessel was bringing Chinese steel products and trucks to Saudi Arabia and Jordan and was manned mostly by Filipinos, with other workers on board from India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Nepal, they said. Third January Maritime’s manager, Khaled Sabra, declined to comment on the casualties.

The Houthis have carried out more than 60 attacks in the Red Sea region in recent months. The attacks have up-ended the shipping industry’s ability to travel through one of the world’s busiest commercial waterways, which connects Asia to Europe and beyond through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

#BREAKING:

Three sailors are missing, and four others are suffering from severe burns following a vicious attack by Houthis on the US "True Confidence" ship off the coast of Yemen. The vessel has been abandoned.

So far that US coalition are having zero deterrence. Absolutely… pic.twitter.com/275HBblQYX

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 6, 2024

A British-registered ship that was struck last month by Houthi forces sank in the Red Sea in recent days, threatening to cause an environmental disaster with its cargo of fertiliser.

A Houthi missile strike on Feb. 18 had blown a hole in the cargo vessel, the Belize-flagged Rubymar, which was shipping 22,000 metric tons of Saudi fertiliser to Bulgaria. That evening, the crew abandoned the vessel and it vanished into the sea late Friday after taking on water for two weeks.

Red Sea Update

On March 5, between the hours of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down one anti-ship ballistic missile and three one-way attack unmanned aerial systems launched from Iranian-backed Houthi controlled areas of Yemen toward… pic.twitter.com/MtzCKu9YlA

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 5, 2024

The U.S. and its allies have sent warships to the Red Sea, and the U.S. and the U.K. have conducted air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen to deter the group from more attacks on the shipping industry. But the Houthis have proved resilient, saying they would continue to attack what they say are ships connected to Israel in response to its invasion of Gaza, though many of the vessels have no connection to Israel.

U.S.-led coalition forces carried out two strikes on Wednesday evening on the Houthi-controlled airport in Hodeidah, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, according to a Houthi official. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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