By Jonathan Saul
LONDON (Reuters) – Three crew members were missing from the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence and four others have been badly burned after the vessel was damaged off Yemen on Wednesday, a shipping source said on Wednesday.
A British monitoring agency had reported earlier that a merchant vessel had been damaged in an attack south of Yemen and coalition forces were supporting it. The ship’s owner said it had been hit by a missile presumed to have come from Yemen’s Houthi militants.
The shipping source, who declined to be identified, said the vessel appeared to have been abandoned.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any attack. But Houthi militants in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it had received a report of an incident 54 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s port city of Aden. It said authorities are investigating the incident but gave no further details.
A U.S. defence official said smoke was seen coming from the True Confidence. The official, who declined to be named, told Reuters a lifeboat had also been seen in the water near the ship.
The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Angus MacSwan)
Comments