DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A missile attack by rebels in Houti in Yemen set up a Dutch layered cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, officials said it injured two Mariners and forced crews to abandon the damaged vessel.
It was the most serious attack in the Gulf of Aden, leaving some distance from the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed Houtsis sunk two ships in July.
The rebels did not insist on attacking Minerbagrakt, but threatened to attack the ship as part of the Israeli-Hamas War campaign in the Gaza Strip, particularly as Israel has been aggressively penetrating Gaza City. Meanwhile, the Middle East continues to stay after the UN reconsidered sanctions against Iran on its nuclear program.
Minervagracht was targeted on September 23 in a failed attack in the Gulf of Aden. It connects East Africa to the Red Sea through the Bab-Elmandev Strait, which separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. On Monday, a missile launch seen by parts of Yemen clearly struck Minerba Glukt.
Spliethoff, the ship’s owner, described the strike as “a major damage to the ship.” Helicopters evacuated the ship’s 19 crew members, including two of which were injured.
European naval forces operating in the area known as Operation Aspides said early Tuesday that Minervagracht was “on fire and drifting” after crew rescue. The ship’s crew has been identified as coming from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, one person is injuring and stable, the other person is seriously injured and airlifted to Djibouti for medical care.
The French military’s Maritime Information, Cooperation and Awareness Centre has identified Houthis as an attack.
Houthis has waited hours and days to insist on their attacks and has not yet done so.
In response to the war in Gaza, rebels launched missile and drone attacks on more than 100 ships and Israel, saying they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
However, the group’s past targets had little or no connection to Israel. The Joint Maritime Information Center, which boasts the US Navy, previously said that Minerba Glukt had no “Israel affiliation.”
The Houthi attack expands the area of recent rebel attacks as the last recorded attack was made on commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden before Minervagracht arrived in August 2024.
Their attacks over the past two years have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, with about $1 trillion in goods passing annually before the war.
Houthis stopped the attack during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the targets of a heavily bombed week-long airstrike campaign ordered by President Donald Trump, declaring that he had reached a ceasefire for the rebels. Houthis sank two ships in July, killing at least four people on board, while others were believed to be held by rebels. They sunk two other people early in the campaign.
___
The Associated Press Writer Microphone Coder from The Hague, the Netherlands, contributed to this report.
