Two Filipino crew members were among those killed in a missile attack by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on a ship in the Gulf of Aden, the government said Thursday.
Those killed in the attack on Wednesday appear to be the first deaths resulting from Huthi attacks on merchant vessels transiting the key Red Sea trade route.
“With great sadness, the Department of Migrant Workers confirms the deaths of two Filipino seafarers in the most recent attack
by Houthi rebels on ships plying the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” the agency said in a statement.
“We are also informed that two other Filipino crewmen were severely injured in the attack on their ship,” it added.
Manila is liaising with the ship owners and its crewing agency “to ascertain the conditions of the rest of the ship’s crew” and to repatriate them, the department said.
An anti-ship ballistic missile struck the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned M/V True Confidence, after which its crew reported “three fatalities, at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition, and significant damage to the ship”, the US Central Command said in a statement.
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on social media that the True Confidence was targeted with missiles “after the ship’s crew rejected warning messages” from the rebels.
The Iran-backed group began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden andthe Red Sea last November, a campaign they say is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Manila is still seeking the release of 17 Filipinos taken hostage by the Huthis in November after the rebels seized their ship in the Red Sea.
The Huthis have been targeting merchant vessels transiting the vital Red Sea trade route for months, but Wednesday’s deaths were the first reported fatalities resulting from such an attack.
“The crew abandoned the ship and coalition warships responded and are assessing the situation,” it said, noting the attack was the fifth time the Huthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile in two days.
“These reckless attacks by the Huthis have disrupted global trade and taken the lives of international seafarers,” CENTCOM said.The Indian Navy said, in a post on social media platform X, that it rescued 21 crew members, including an Indian national.It published video footage of the rescue operation, saying eight people were winched to safety by helicopter while others were evacuated to hospitals in Djibouti.CENTCOM said several hours after the True Confidence was hit that it had carried out strikes against “two unmanned aerial vehicles in a Huthi-controlled area of Yemen that presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships”.”These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” it said in a separate statement without elaborating.The United States and Britain have launched repeated strikes on Huthi targets in Yemen since January in response to the ship attacks but the rebels have continued to target merchant vessels.The British embassy in Sanaa said earlier the death toll on board the True Confidence was at least two, describing the loss of life as “the sad but inevitable consequence of the Huthis recklessly firing missiles at international shipping”.British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised that “we will continue to stand up for freedom of navigation and back our words with actions”.The Huthis began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in November, a campaign they say is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.They have vowed to strike Israeli, British, and American ships, as well as vessels heading to Israeli ports, disrupting traffic through the vital trade route off Yemen’s shores.The latest incident comes after a Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated ship sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer on board.The ship, called the Rubymar, had been taking on water since it was hit by a Huthi missile on Feb. 18 that damaged its hull and forced the evacuation of its crew to Djibouti.The flurry of Huthi strikes has caused several major shipping firms to suspend passage through the Red Sea, which usually carries around 12 percent of global trade. AFP