A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden killed three crew members, authorities said.
It was the first fatal strike in the group’s campaign of attacks because of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have launched attacks since November and the US launched a campaign of airstrikes in January that has so far failed to halt rebel attacks. The attack on the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence further escalated the conflict on a crucial sea route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe, disrupting global shipping.
Officials said the attack on the True Confidence tanker was carried out on Wednesday after it was hailed over the radio by men posing as Yemeni military personnel. Since the Houthi attacks began, ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been called by radio by the Houthis, and analysts suspect the rebels want to seize the vessels.
Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the anti-ship ballistic missile attack killed three crew members on board and injured six others.
The full extent of the damage to the Liberian-owned ship remains unclear, but the crew abandoned the ship and deployed lifeboats. A US warship and the Indian Navy arrived at the scene in an attempt to assist in the rescue efforts.
Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Houthi armed forces, announced the attack in a pre-recorded message, saying the rocket fire caused the ship to catch fire. He said the rebel attacks would only stop when “the siege on the Palestinian people in Gaza is lifted.”
Rebels have repeatedly struck ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters in the war between Israel and Hamas, but until Wednesday had not killed a single crew member. The ships included at least one carrying cargo bound for Iran, the main sponsor of the Houthis, and a ship carrying humanitarian aid that was later diverted to Houthi-controlled territory.
Despite more than a month and a half of US-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels are still able to launch significant attacks. These include last month’s attack on the Rubymar fertiliser cargo ship, which sank on Saturday after days adrift, and the shooting down of a US drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
