Three crew members missing after attack on Barbados-flagged vessel off coast of Yemen

Three crew members are missing from the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence and four others have been badly burned after the vessel was damaged off Yemen earlier today, a shipping source says.

A British monitoring agency 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 Houthis.

The shipping source, who declines to be identified, says the vessel appeared to have been abandoned.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility for any attack. But Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping since mid-November.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says it received a report of an incident 54 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s port city of Aden. It says authorities are investigating the incident but gave no further details.

A US defense official says smoke was seen coming from the True Confidence. The official, who declines to be named, tells Reuters a lifeboat had also been seen in the water near the ship.