The first casualties from the group’s attacks on merchant boats, according to the cargo ship’s owners and the US, were three crew members who perished in a Houthi missile strike off the coast of southern Yemen.
Following the substantial damage caused by Wednesday’s attack, the True Confidence, flying the flag of Barbados, was abandoned.
There were three seamen that perished: two were Filipinos and one was Vietnamese.
According to the Houthis, their assaults are in defense of the Palestinians in the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
True Confidence’s owners denied this, but a military spokesman for the Iran-backed militia stated that the reason it targeted the company was because it was “American.”
According to its owners, the attack on True Confidence happened on Wednesday at around 12:30 (09:30 GMT) while the bulk carrier was in the Gulf of Aden, some 50 nautical miles (93 km) south-west of the city of Aden.
There were twenty people on board, including one Indian, four Vietnamese, and fifteen Filipinos.
There were also three armed guards on board, one from Nepal and two from Sri Lanka.
According to a Centcom statement, an anti-ship ballistic missile fired from a Houthi-controlled region of Yemen struck the 183-meter-long bulk carrier.
It released an aerial photo that revealed serious damage to the cabins and bridge on the port side of the damaged ship.
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