Three sailors were killed in a Houthi missile attack on a bulk carrier near Yemen’s southern port of Aden on Wednesday, the British embassy in Sanaa and the Philippine government said Thursday.
The ship owners on Thursday confirmed the deaths and said two other crew members sustained serious injuries.
Those killed in the attack on Wednesday appear to be first deaths resulting from Houthi rebels attacks on merchant vessels transiting the key Red Sea trade route.
The Houthi rebels attacked Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence a day after launching a barrage of drones and missiles at US Navy ships in the Red Sea.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which tracks down ship attacks, reported on Wednesday that it had received an alert about an attack damaging a commercial ship 54 nautical miles southwest of Aden and urged ships in the area to be cautious and that coalition forces in the area were offering assistance to the targeted ship.
The ship is owned by the Liberian-registered company True Confidence Shipping and operated by the Greece-based Third January Maritime, both firms said in a joint statement.
According to www.marinetraffic.com, which provides data on ship movements and whereabouts, True Confidence was in the area this week, going from China’s Lianyungang port to Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship and launched hundreds of drones, missiles and explosive-laden and remotely controlled boats at commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, obstructing vital water corridors before Israeli ships.
The Houthi attack on the ship came as the US Central Command said on Wednesday that its forces shot down on Tuesday an anti-ship ballistic missile and three drones fired by the Houthis from areas under their control in Yemen at the Navy ship USS Carney in the Red Sea, adding that its forces also destroyed three anti-ship missiles and three remotely controlled and explosive-laden boats on the ground in Yemen before the Houthis launched them.