3 killed in Houthi missile assault on the bulk carrier True Confidence, flying the flag of Barbados, in the Gulf of Aden

Three crew members were killed, and the survivors were forced to leave the commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday due to a missile strike by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to the US Navy. It was the first of a series of deadly attacks by the Iranian-backed organization in response to Israel’s conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The assault on the Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence, flying the Barbados flag, intensifies the confrontation on a vital maritime corridor that connects Europe to Asia and the Middle East and has hampered international transport. The US started a bombing campaign in January, but it hasn’t stopped the Houthis’ assaults since they started in November.

Iran, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that it would take a $50 million shipment of Kuwaiti crude oil for the American energy company Chevron Corp. from a vessel that it had captured over a year before. Even before the Houthi strikes started, a years-long shadow war was being fought in the Middle East’s waterways. This is the most recent development in that fight.

The True Confidence was hit by an anti-ship ballistic missile fired from a Houthi-controlled region of Yemen, according to the US military’s Central Command, seriously damaging the vessel. At least four crew members were injured, three of whom were in severe condition, in addition to the three fatalities.

The US Navy published two overhead images that showed the ship’s bridge and its cargo in flames.

International mariners do some of the toughest jobs in the world and are depended upon by the general public to maintain supply chains. As a result of the Houthis’ irresponsible strikes, Central Command said, “Global trade has been disrupted and lives have been lost.”

According to authorities, the incident happened after individuals posing as members of the Yemeni military radioed the ship. Since the start of their assaults, the Houthis have been calling ships via radio in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading experts to believe that the rebels want to take the ships.

The crew abandoned the ship and launched lifeboats when the missile struck. The Indian Navy and a US vessel were there, making an attempt to support the rescue operations.

The twenty-person crew consisted of one Indian, fifteen Filipinos, and four Vietnamese, according to the ship’s management and owners. There were also three armed guards on board, one from Nepal and two from Sri Lanka. The ship was transporting steel from China to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed grave worry over the ongoing assaults, especially the most recent one in which the crew’s condition is unclear, and urged the Houthis “to cease all attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea.”

The assaults are putting “property, life, and ecology in the area at risk,” according to Dujarric.

Spokesman Matthew Miller of the State Department in Washington denounced the assault. We don’t care about the safety of innocent bystanders traveling across the Red Sea; we just keep watching these heedless assaults. Sadly and terribly, they have now murdered innocent citizens,” he informed reporters.

“The US obviously is going to continue to take action,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a separate statement.

The assault was claimed by a Houthi military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, in a taped statement, claiming that the vessel caught fire due to missile firing. According to him, the strikes by the rebels won’t end until the “siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza is lifted.”

Throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict, the rebels have attacked ships in the Red Sea and nearby waterways on many occasions, although they have not yet resulted in any crew member deaths as of Wednesday. Among the ships are at least one carrying supplies destined for Iran, the primary donor to the Houthis, and another assistance ship that will eventually go toward area under Houthi control.

The Houthi rebels have maintained their ability to mount sizable assaults in spite of almost a month and a half of airstrikes led by the United States. These include the downing of an American drone valued at tens of millions of dollars and the assault on a fertilizer-carrying cargo ship last month, the Rubymar, which sunk on Saturday after drifting for several days.

The Houthis’ motivation for attacking the True Confidence remained unknown. But Oaktree Capital Management, an installment-financing firm located in Los Angeles, had owned it before. Oaktree opted not to respond.

The USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been a part of the US operation against the rebels, was reportedly the target of a separate Houthi attack on Tuesday. According to Central Command, the Carney downed one anti-ship ballistic missile and drones delivering bombs. Saree also admitted to that assault.

According to Central Command, the US subsequently carried out an attack that destroyed three anti-ship missiles and three drone boats carrying bombs.

Despite claiming that at least 22 of its fighters have been slain, the Houthis have not provided an estimate of the harm they have endured as a result of the US-led attacks that started in January. There has apparently been one civilian death.

Separately, the US Treasury unveiled further sanctions aimed at the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which supplies the rebels with weapons, and a financier supporting the Houthis.

Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, has been under Houthi control since 2014. Since 2015, they have fought a protracted conflict there against a coalition headed by Saudi Arabia.

A video showed Indian sailors from the INS Kolkata dousing a fire on board the MSC Sky II—which the Houthis had attacked in the Gulf of Aden on Monday—was made public by the Indian navy in the meanwhile. The ship was heading from Singapore to Djibouti when the missile hit it, according to the Swiss business Mediterranean Shipping Co. Nobody was hurt.

Iran made a second notice about the seizure of the crude oil on board the Advantage Sweet, which was distributed by the state-run Mizan news agency for the court. Without providing any proof, Iran claimed at the time that the Advantage Sweet had crashed with another ship.