What happened?
Iran-backed Houthi militants killed three crew members on a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned commercial ship carrying steel from China to Saudi Arabia through the Gulf of Aden. Wednesday's missile strike on the MV True Confidence also wounded four members of the international crew, from India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These were the first fatalities of the Yemeni militant group's months of attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, purportedly in support of embattled Palestinians.
How we got here
The sailors' deaths are the "sad but inevitable consequence of the Houthis recklessly firing missiles at international shipping," Britain's embassy in Yemen said. "They must stop." The "reckless attacks by the Houthis have disrupted global trade" and supply chains, and now they've killed "international seafarers simply doing their jobs," U.S. Central Command said.
The commentary
A U.S.-led task force "has been shooting down as many of these missiles and drones as it can," but "the Houthis seem to have an inexhaustible supply of them," the BBC said. Now that these attacks "have turned deadly there are bound to be calls to step up retaliation." The U.S. and U.K. have been hitting Houthi targets for weeks, The Associated Press said, but the Houthis clearly remain "capable of launching significant attacks."
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"The U.S. obviously is going to continue to take action," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
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