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Crew members abandon ship after Red Sea attack

Crew members abandon ship after Red Sea attack

The attack marks the first serious assault in the vital corridor for trade after a months-long campaign by Yemen's Houthi rebels there.
Suspicion for the attack on the Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas immediately fell on the Houthis, particularly as a security firm said it appeared bomb-carrying drone boats hit the ship after it was targeted by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
The rebels' media reported on the attack but did not claim it. It can take them hours or even days before they acknowledge an assault.
A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in US and Western forces to the area, particularly after President Donald Trump targeted the rebels in a major air strike campaign.
And it comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme following US air strikes targeting its most-sensitive atomic sites amid an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
'It likely serves as a message that the Houthis continue to possess the capability and willingness to strike at strategic maritime targets regardless of diplomatic developments,' wrote Mohammad al-Basha, a Yemen analyst at the Basha Report risk advisory firm.
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre first said that an armed security team on the unidentified vessel had returned fire against an initial attack and that the 'situation is ongoing'.
It described the attack as happening 60 miles south west of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the country's Houthi rebels.
'Authorities are investigating,' it said, later adding that the ship was on fire after being 'struck by unknown projectiles'.
Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been 'attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea'.
Ambrey later said the ship also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could mark a major escalation. It said two drone boats struck the ship while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the ship was taking on water and its crew were abandoning the vessel.
The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The group's al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi. However, Ambrey said the vessel targeted met 'the established Houthi target profile'.
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. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees 1 trillion dollars of goods move through it annually.
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Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland for trade talks
Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland for trade talks

The Guardian

time32 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland for trade talks

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Trump expected to hit the golf course on first day in Scotland
Trump expected to hit the golf course on first day in Scotland

The Independent

time39 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Trump expected to hit the golf course on first day in Scotland

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Scottish isle has shown leadership our leaders sorely lack
Scottish isle has shown leadership our leaders sorely lack

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

Scottish isle has shown leadership our leaders sorely lack

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READ MORE: Keir Starmer defers recognising Palestine amid pressure from 221 MPs and Macron On Friday evening, the UK, France and Germany issued a statement which declared that the 'time has come to end the war in Gaza', while demanding that the civilian population's needs must be met. I bet they're trembling in their jackboots in Israeli military headquarters. Sure, they got away with 21 months of slaughtering plausibly well over 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone, indiscriminately wiping out civilian infrastructure and the pillars of civilisation, imposing a wantonly illegal siege while destroying local food production, and subjecting the survivors to torture, kidnapping and rape. But the British, French and German governments have sent yet another really disappointed letter, so the game is up, boys! Let's be candid here. As Israel's entirely manufactured famine ravages Gaza's traumatised survivors, and photographs of children and babies reduced to skin and bone belatedly make it on to front pages, the Western public is increasingly disgusted and angry. Letters such as this are not, in actual fact, aimed at Israel at all. They are intended to deflect scrutiny about the role of Western leaders in manufacturing one of the great crimes of our age. Israeli protesters demonstrating against the genocide Sure, France has finally agreed to recognise an independent Palestinian state – an act which still eludes the Labour Government – but this is hardly the most pressing action. Western governments know exactly what Israel has been doing for nearly two years. Their leaders and officials have insisted on declaring their genocidal intentions with uncompromising honesty, day after day. On Thursday, the Israeli Heritage Minister declared that Israel is: 'racing ahead for [[Gaza]] to be wiped out. Thank God we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on Mein Kampf', adding 'All [[Gaza]] will be Jewish.' Not exactly subtle, is it? You may wonder why on earth Israel's rulers would self-incriminate themselves so willingly. Don't they know the world can hear them? Well, alas, they know almost the entire Western media – with exceptions like The National – will suppress these bloodcurdling promises. And they know that Western leaders will take no meaningful action. Western leaders know that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against the Israeli leadership for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They know that South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice led to devastating rulings and provisional orders. They know that a consensus of genocide scholars and NGOs from Amnesty International to Medicins Sant Frontieres have concluded this is genocide. 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