A Houthi ballistic missile attack on a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden resulted in at least two sailor deaths, two U.S. officials told Reuters. CNN .
This is the first time that the Iranian-backed armed group has killed crew members on ships transiting the Red Sea. At least six other crew members were injured, one of the sources said.
The attack hit the M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged bulk carrier owned by Liberia, according to authorities. The ship was abandoned after the incident, and coalition warships are now in the area assessing the situation, they added.
The attack happened at around 11:30 a.m. Sanaa time, one of the officials said, marking a significant escalation of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping that began in October in response to Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis have launched more than 45 missile and drone attacks against U.S. and coalition commercial and Navy ships operating in the Red Sea, according to Western officials.
Most attacks were intercepted by US or coalition destroyers, or hit the water.
To date, no military vessels have been hit by Houthi drones or missiles, according to Defense Department spokesman Pete Nguyen. However, more than a dozen commercial ships, including several U.S. ships, have been hit since October, he said.
The US and UK have also carried out four rounds of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since January, hitting weapons storage facilities, missiles, unmanned aerial one-way strike systems, air defense systems, radars and helicopters used by the rebel group.
US Central Command forces have also regularly conducted dynamic strikes against Houthi missiles that were being prepared for launch from inside Yemen.
Houthis continue to attack and grow stronger
However, Joe Biden's government has struggled to stop the attacks and the group continues to strengthen its weapons arsenal in Yemen, according to CNN previously reported.
Several authorities highlighted the CNN that the United States does not yet have “a denominator” that allows it to assess the percentage of Houthi equipment that allies have destroyed in airstrikes, and it is unclear whether the US will further change its military approach.
“We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable, they have sophisticated weapons, and that's because they continue to get them from Iran,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh warned last week, hours after the Houthis struck another cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden with ballistic missiles.
“They continue to surprise us. We just don't have a good idea of what they still have,” said a senior US Defense official.
And despite a robust U.S. and coalition presence in the Red Sea, which includes the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and several U.S. destroyers, Houthi attacks have caused a massive drop in the number of ships traveling through the Suez Canal.
The passage connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, allowing ships to cut thousands of kilometers from shipping lanes instead of sailing around Africa.
In the first half of February, the Suez Canal recorded a 42% drop in monthly traffic and an 82% decrease in container tonnage since its peak in 2023, according to the UN.
Source: CNN Brasil
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