On Wednesday, Yemen’s Ansar Allah group claimed it targeted another commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden. The news reports later confirmed that at least three crew members of the Liberia-owned and Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence were killed and four others were wounded in the strike.
These are the first casualties reported since Ansar Allah launched strikes on the ships heading to Israel in the region in support of Palestinians in Gaza on November 19 last year.
Yahya Sare’e, the spokesman of the Yemeni armed forces, claimed that the attack on the ship was carried out after the crew ignored repeated warnings and proceeded on its course.
CENTCOM confirmed the attacks on True Confidence and called them “reckless.” According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) the ship was abandoned following the attack and was no longer under any command.
This would be the second such ship abandoned in the region after UK-owned Rubymar, which sank in the Red Sea earlier this month after being hit by Ansar Allah missiles in mid February and abandoned.
Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen, said that his country’s armed forces do not target civilians intentionally, and blamed the US for being responsible for the death of crew members. He claimed that the US has ignored their warnings and not taken any steps to end the war in Gaza which has killed over 31,000 Palestinians in more than five months.
Mohammad Ali claimed that Yemeni armed forces are merely responding to “reckless American strikes” and its “militarization of the sea” to protect Israeli interests. He demanded that the US provide compensation to the families of the dead crew members for putting them in harms’ way by misleading them, Al-Mayadeen reported.
Since November 19, the Ansar Allah led government in Yemen has carried out over 45 attacks on the ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It had announced that its attempt was to prevent ships destined to Israel crossing the Bab al-Mandab in the region in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and had demanded the end of the war.
Meanwhile, the US and the UK forces carried out the latest round of attacks in Yemen on Wednesday, March 6, targeting port city Hodeidah and several other locations inside the country. According to Al-Masirah, the airstrikes targeted and damaged the Hodeidah international airport.
Wednesday was the third consecutive day of the combined airstrikes carried out by the US and the UK forces targeting civilian and military installations alike.
US Central Command also claimed that it conducted “self-defense strikes against” two unmanned aerial vehicles in Yemen on Wednesday evening.
Though a large number of shipping companies diverted their ships to alternative routes, the US, instead of pressuring Israel to abandon its war against Palestinian people, announced the formation of an international maritime coalition in December, apparently to protect international navigation. Despite warning that any confrontation can cause escalation, it launched air strikes inside Yemen calling the Ansar Allah’s move a “threat to freedom of navigation.” Ansar Allah, in return, announced it will target ships linked to the US and the UK as well.
Al-Masirah claims that the country’s naval forces carried out a total of 20 strikes against 23 ships between November 19 and January 31, 2024. Most of the ships targeted were either owned by the Israelis or were heading to Israeli ports. Around nine of those ships, including some warships, were from the US. The number of strikes against the US and UK ships in the region has increased in recent times.
