A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi group on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea has killed three sailors and wounded two others, a European Union naval force says.
The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C late on Monday follows the Houthis claiming they attacked another vessel on Sunday in the Red Sea, a vital maritime trade route.
While the Houthis have not yet claimed the attack, the US Embassy in Yemen and the EU force blamed them for it.
“The Houthis are once again showing blatant disregard for human life, undermining freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” the embassy, which has operated out of Saudi Arabia for nearly a decade due to Yemen’s wider war, said on Tuesday.
“The intentional murder of innocent mariners shows us all the Houthis’ true colors and will only further the Houthis’ isolation.”
The Houthis say that are targeting Israel-linked ships as part of a campaign to pressure the Israeli military to end its assault on Gaza, which rights groups have described as a genocide.
After Sunday’s attack on a vessel called Magic Seas, the Houthis said ships owned by companies with ties to Israel are a “legitimate target”.
“Our operations will continue to target the depth of the Israeli entity in occupied Palestine, as well as to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas and to disrupt the Umm al-Rashrash [Eilat] port, until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” the group said in a statement.
The twin assaults mark a revival of attacks on ships in the Red Sea and potentially signal the start of a new armed campaign threatening the waterway, which had begun to see more traffic in recent weeks.
The EU, Israel’s largest trade partner, had condemned Sunday’s attack.
“It is the first such attack against a commercial vessel in 2025, a serious escalation endangering maritime security in a vital waterway for the region and the world,” the bloc said in a statement.
“These attacks directly threaten regional peace and stability, global commerce and freedom of navigation as a global public good. They can negatively impact the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. These attacks must stop.”
The two Houthi attacks and a round of Israeli air strikes early on Monday targeting three Yemeni ports raised fears of a renewed campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces.
The administration of US President Donald Trump launched an intense bombing campaign in Yemen earlier this year, but Washington and the Houthis reached a ceasefire in May, with the Yemeni group agreeing to halt attacks against US ships.
The escalation comes as a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme following its war with Israel in June.
Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. Their campaign has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.
Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, has increased in recent weeks.
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