US Says Three Crewmembers Killed in Houthi Attack on Commercial Ship

Recent US and British airstrikes in Yemen have killed at least one civilian and wounded ten others

The US military said Wednesday that a Houthi attack on a cargo ship killed three crewmembers and wounded four, marking the first casualties in the Houthi operations against commercial shipping that were launched in response to the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

US Central Command said a Houthi ballistic missile hit the M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier. The Houthis took credit for the attack and said the ship was American-owned, but the True Confidence’s owner and manager said in a statement there was “no current connection with any US entity.”

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said Yemeni forces “struck the US ship in the Gulf of Aden, which caused a fire to break out.” He said the “operation was carried out after the crew of the American ship rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces.”

In response to the reports of civilians being killed, Houthi officials said they don’t intentionally target crew members. “We do not intentionally harm the crews of ships belonging to enemy countries, so we ask them to return and warn them not to cross,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, wrote on X.

“America and Britain’s insistence on the continuation of genocide in Gaza, the starvation of its population, and its aggression against Yemen is what led to this dangerous escalation,” al-Bukhaiti added.

Later on Wednesday, Yemeni media reported that US and British strikes targeted an airport in Yemen’s Hodeidah province, which is on the Red Sea. The new US bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen has killed at least one civilian and wounded 10 others in February.

According to the Yemen Data Project, one civilian was killed, and seven were injured in a US strike on a telecommunications site, two were wounded in a strike on a pesticide factory, and one was injured in a strike on a farm. The US has killed at least 17 Houthi fighters since it began bombing Yemen on January 12.

The US has a long history of killing civilians in Yemen in its drone wars, and the US backed a brutal Saudi-UAE war against the Houthis from 2015-2022. The war and blockade on Yemen killed at least 377,000 people, and more than half died of starvation and disease caused by the siege.

The new US war against the Houthis has only escalated the situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as the Houthis are now targeting American and British commercial shipping. The Houthis were initially only targeting Israel-linked commercial shipping and have made clear the only way they’ll stop is if the siege on Gaza comes to an end.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.