- By Tom Spender and Joshua Cheetham
- BBC News
March 6, 2024, 2:02 p.m. GMT
Updated 9 minutes ago
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The owner of the Barbados-flagged True Confidence is registered to an address in Liberia (file photo).
Some crew members have abandoned the ship and others are reported missing after a missile attack on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen, maritime security firm Ambrey says.
The True Confidence was drifting with a fire on board after it was hit around 0930 GMT, the ship's manager said.
The BBC's US partner CBS quoted US officials as saying the attack was likely to have caused fatalities.
Yemen's Houthi movement, which attacks shipping, has not commented.
The Iran-backed group says the attacks are a show of support for Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Before Wednesday's incident, the Barbados-flagged True Confidence force was greeted by a group calling itself the Yemeni Navy and asked to change course, Ambrey said.
According to the British Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, nearby ships then reported a loud bang and a large cloud of smoke.
The attack occurred about 50 nautical miles (93 km) southwest of the Yemeni city of Aden, a spokesman for the ship's owners and managers said in a statement.
The spokesman said he had no information about the condition of the ship's crew.
A U.S. official told Portal that smoke was seen coming from the True Confidence and a lifeboat was seen in the water.
The UKMTO said the ship had been abandoned and was no longer under command.
Rescue and recovery operations are underway and some of the crew are in lifeboats, the EU Center for Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) said, adding that naval vessels were providing assistance.
The True Confidence is owned by True Confidence Shipping SA, which is registered at an address in Liberia, operated by Third January Maritime Ltd in Greece and currently has no connection to a U.S. company, according to a spokesman for the owners and managers.
The crew consisted of 20 men, consisting of one Indian, four Vietnamese and 15 Filipino nationals. There were also three armed guards on board – two from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal.
The bulk carrier was traveling from Lianyungang in China to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, tracking data showed, carrying a load of steel products and trucks, the spokesman said.
On Sunday, the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar sank in the Red Sea, two weeks after it was hit by Houthi missiles. It was the first ship sunk since Houthi attacks began in November.
When the Rubymar was attacked, it was near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. The crew was rescued and the ship slowly began to take on water.
It was carrying a cargo of 21 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which the U.S. military said posed an environmental risk in the Red Sea.
US and British forces responded to drone and missile attacks on merchant ships sailing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by targeting Houthi weapons and infrastructure in western Yemen.