Missile attack on cargo ship off Yemen wounds 2 and sends crew fleeing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels set a Dutch-flagged cargo ship ablaze in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, officials said, wounding two mariners and forcing its crew to abandon the damaged vessel.

It was the most serious attack in the Gulf of Aden, some distance from the Red Sea where the Iranian-backed Houthis sank two vessels in July.

While the rebels did not claim the assault on the Minervagracht, they had threatened to strike ships as part of their campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, particularly as Israel squeezes in on Gaza City in a new ground offensive. Meanwhile, the Mideast also remains on edge after the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

The Minervagracht had been targeted on Sept. 23 in an unsuccessful attack in the Gulf of Aden, which connects to the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait separating East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. On Monday, a missile launch seen by some in Yemen apparently struck the Minervagracht.

Spliethoff, the ship’s owner, described the strike as “inflicting substantial damage to the ship.” A helicopter evacuated the ship’s 19 crew members, of which two were wounded, it added.

A European naval force operating in the region, known as Operation Aspides, said early Tuesday that the Minervagracht “is on fire and adrift” after the crew’s rescue. It identified the ship’s crew as coming from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, with one wounded and stable and another severely wounded and airlifted to Djibouti for medical care.

The French military’s Maritime Information, Cooperation and Awareness Center identified the Houthis as carrying out the attack.

The Houthis wait hours and even days to claim their assaults and have not yet done so.

The rebels have launched missile and drone attacks on over 100 ships and on Israel in response to the war in Gaza, saying they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

However, the group’s past targets have had little or no connection to Israel. The U.S. Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Center earlier said that the Minervagracht had “no Israeli affiliations.”

The Houthi attack widens the area of the rebels’ recent assaults, as the last recorded attack on a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden before the Minervagracht came in August 2024.

Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war.

The Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The Houthis sank two vessels in July, killing at least four on board, with others believed to be held by the rebels. They sank two others earlier in the campaign.

Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

阿联酋迪拜（美联社）——官员称，也门胡塞武装周一向亚丁湾发射导弹，导致一艘悬挂荷兰国旗的货船起火，造成两名海员受伤，船员被迫弃船。

这是亚丁湾发生的最严重的袭击事件，距离红海还有一段距离，7 月份，伊朗支持的胡塞武装在红海击沉了两艘船只。

尽管反叛分子并未声称对米涅瓦运河袭击事件负责，但他们曾威胁要袭击船只，以此作为其针对以色列和哈马斯在加沙地带冲突的抗议活动的一部分，尤其是在以色列对加沙城发动新一轮地面攻势之际。与此同时，联合国因伊朗核计划重新对伊朗实施制裁后，中东局势依然紧张。

9月23日，密涅瓦运河在亚丁湾遭到袭击，但袭击未遂。亚丁湾通过曼德海峡与红海相连，曼德海峡将东非与阿拉伯半岛分隔开来。周一，也门境内一些人目击到一枚导弹，该导弹似乎击中了密涅瓦运河。

船东斯普利特霍夫称此次袭击“对船舶造成了重大损害”。声明还补充说，一架直升机疏散了船上19名船员，其中两人受伤。

周二早些时候，在事发海域执行任务的欧洲海军部队（代号“阿斯派德斯行动”）表示，“米涅瓦格拉赫特”号在船员获救后“起火漂流”。该部队确认船员分别来自菲律宾、俄罗斯、斯里兰卡和乌克兰，其中一人受伤但情况稳定，另一人伤势严重，已被空运至吉布提接受治疗。

法国军方海上信息、合作与感知中心认定胡塞武装发动了此次袭击。

胡塞武装等待数小时甚至数天才宣称发动袭击，至今仍未这样做。

为回应加沙战争，反叛分子对 100 多艘船只和以色列发动了导弹和无人机袭击，并声称他们的行动是为了声援巴勒斯坦人。

然而，该组织过去的袭击目标与以色列几乎没有任何联系。美国海军下属的联合海上信息中心此前曾表示，“密涅瓦运河”号与以色列“没有任何关联”。

胡塞武装的袭击扩大了叛军近期袭击的范围，因为在“密涅瓦格拉赫特”号事件之前，亚丁湾上一次有记录的商船袭击发生在 2024 年 8 月。

过去两年，他们的袭击扰乱了红海的航运，战前每年约有价值 1 万亿美元的货物通过红海运输。

在战争短暂的停火期间，胡塞武装停止了袭击。之后，在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普宣布与胡塞武装达成停火协议之前，胡塞武装下令对胡塞武装发动了持续数周的猛烈空袭。7月，胡塞武装击沉了两艘船只，造成船上至少四人死亡，另有船只据信被胡塞武装扣押。此前，胡塞武装还在此次空袭中击沉了另外两艘船只。

美联社驻荷兰海牙记者迈克·科德对本报道亦有贡献。