Yemen’s Houthis Kill Two Sailors on Barbados-Flagged Ship in Gulf of Aden
The missile killed two sailors on the commercial ship. The survivors had to abandon the ship.
The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have been firing on all types of ships since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7.
One of those missiles killed two sailors today:
A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden killed two of its crew members and forced survivors to abandon the vessel on Wednesday, authorities said, the first fatal strike in a campaign of assaults by the group over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack on the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier True Confidence further escalates the conflict on a crucial maritime route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe that has disrupted global shipping. The Iranian-backed Houthis have launched attacks since November, and the US began an airstrike campaign in January that so far hasn’t halted the rebels’ attacks.
People claiming to be part of the Yemeni military announced themselves over the radio before the attack.
Not much is known about the damage to the Liberian-owned ship.
I will update you when I find more information.
🚨 BREAKING: Two sailors have died after a Houthi missile attack on a vessel in the Red Sea, with other crewmates left injured or missing.
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🖥 GB News on YouTube https://t.co/Wa58gYGZwF pic.twitter.com/rGcOCnSi8D— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 6, 2024
Three sailors are missing, and four others are suffering from severe burns following a vicious attack by Houthis on the US "True Confidence" ship off the coast of Yemen. The vessel has been abandoned.
So far that US coalition are having zero deterrence. Absolutely… pic.twitter.com/275HBblQYX
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 6, 2024
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“This is all so unexpected,” said President Biden as he read from his note card. “No one could have seen this coming. But even so, we still can’t do anything because we don’t want to raise tensions in the region.”
News flash for the entire Biden military and state department team, defending yourself and fighting back are not tension raising activities. In fact, eliminating the problem is a peace making exercise.
In more important news, (p)Resident Brandon chose “Rocky Road” ice cream commemorating the health struggle of Beau and his death as the families of the dead sailors prepare for burial of their loved ones.
Another NEWS FLASH: The “Biden military and state department have no intentions of fighting with any foreigners. They are training to fight with those pesky Patriots that will insist on their basic freedoms in THE CONSTITUTION. Most libtards aren’t familiar with this document but we most certainly are!
True though this attack was NOT against a US Flagged Vessel, it was registered under the Flag of Barbados. Not the responsibility of the US to defend the whole damn world.
That down took was supposed to be an uptick. Sorry, Chief.
Appeasement is provocative.
The answer is to actually attack the Houthis, killing as many as possible.
It’s time to start sinking their vessels and shooting down their aircraft on the high seas and destroying the support infrastructure. Give them one warning, then execute.
I have read in the WP that there are many starving people in Yemen. Perhaps we should airdrop in hundreds of thousands of meals to show them we are the good guys.
That applies to Iran, neutralize them and most of these other problems will wither and go away.
Yeah this should be handled with the big stick, not this softball crap.
Time to open the extra large can of kickass.
We left those cans in Afghanistan
Students at Harvard will be thrilled, they will probably write a heartfelt letter noting how Israel is to blame for the deaths.
harvard students should be drafted, that would help them develop cgaracter.
This seems a far more important priority than funding the Ukrainian leaders bank accounts.
Can’t afford another failure this year.
Well, they are used to being failures so what’s another to add to the list eh 🤷♂️
Also, find all the Biden Syndicate bank accounts.
How’s that Operation Prosperity Guardian working out? Is it time to get serious with these slippery rascals and bomb them into the stone age? Good Luck.
Outside of the weapons, they live like they are in the Stone Age, especially the women
So many thought on this. First, I can’t believe ships are still transiting this region with their AIS turned on. Merchant ships managed to sail for 2K-years without AIS. They can go without it for several hundred miles. Second, Egypt – who has the most to lose in the form of Suez canal fees – is remarkably silent on all this, at least in public. Eventually, that loss of revenue is going to start hurting.
They – Biden & the Pentagon – are simply going to have to adopt more aggressive targeting packages. While in the absence of quality on-the-ground intel there are some technological and other limiting factors that impede (but not stop) our ability to hit these launchers, there are other fixed targets we could hit…like ports, C2, coms and GARRISON installations. Nothing concentrates the mind like losing a few thousand troops as well as your ability to communicate with those left living particularly when it happens in one night. Then, wait two days and do it all over again….and again, and again.
Lastly, that Iranian surveillance ship masquerading as a bulk carrier that is feeding real-time intelligence to the Houthis is going to have to find the sea floor. They should do it in broad daylight.
Well, the Houthis, and half of Yemen, deserves to be blown off the Earth as a point of principle. Hell, we still owe Yemen a serious thrashing in retaliation for the Cole. They should be laid to waste.
However …
A Barbados-flagged ship is NOT a “US” ship. They flag Barbados then they can call on the Barbadosian navy to defend them.
I am tired of companies flagging ships in joke countries for tax purposes and then wanting the US Navy to defend them. Sure, I’d be happy to have the US Navy blow the hell out of much of Yemen in response to this, but then Barbados needs to get a bill for the action!
If you flag your ship in Barbados or Liberia (LOL) then you are depending on those countries to defend your ship on the seas. America has nothing to do with your ship.
Nobody is using a flag of convenience for tax purposes. That’s a trope that people who don’t understand the industry use. They’re using a flags of convenience because the Jones Act is hugely counter-productive, the USCG ship classification is archaic and outdated and – here’s the biggest one – Americans are seen to be so laughably litigious, no insurer wants to insure a boat with an American crew, something that is (largely) required if you fly the American flag.
But, here’s the dirtiest secret: We don’t want cargo ships flying our flag; most western countries don’t because it’s a huge pain the ass. For an island country without a lot of industry, it makes some sense. For a nation with a diverse, productive economy, it doesn’t And, whatever flag the chip is flying, it’s still our cargo.
Respectfully, if a particular shipping company chooses to save a buck by using a Foreign Flag that’s on them. They gotta accept the consequences of failing to use US Flagged Vessels; to wit depending upon the strength of the diplomatic and military response offered by the Nation they chose to register and operate under.
The primary issue of the Jones Act with international shipping is use of Vessels built in US shipyards by American workers. It would cost to do that and that’s a requirement to obtain a US registration/Flag.
The litigation angle is somewhat true but surely you wouldn’t object to mariners injured due to their employer’s negligence or skimping on maintenance seeking restitution in CT?
If the Nation of Barbados fails to offer protection for the shipping company Vessels which fly their Flag that’s an issue for the company to take up with the govt of Barbados. Alternatively the shipping company could submit purchase orders with US shipyards and take possession of US built Vessels to operate under the US Flag instead. Then they would have a claim on the US Navy. Otherwise they can pound sand.
To really get into this, it would require a painfully long conversation…which no one wants The tl;dr is for a lot of different reasons, there isn’t a commercial shipbuilding industry left in the US anymore. Even if all the other issues could be remedied, the lack of shipbuilding capacity in the US as well as the Jones Act would make it impossible for the US shipping industry to migrate to US-flagged ships. And that all presumes having a giant fleet of US-flagged cargo ships is really something anyone wants….and I don’t think it is.
TargaGTS,
Ok short response then:
1. By placing orders in US shipyards those shipyards hire/train a workforce to begin producing commercial vessels in the USA.
2. The Jones act doesn’t prohibit anything re international shipping. It simply requires a US built vessel, US crew with access to US Courts to resolve claims against the employer.
I am happy to grant that this would all cost more than using a cheap foreign crew from Indonesia or wherever on a Greek registered vessel built somewhere other than in the USA.
However costs would also rise for shipping companies if the US restricted our defense of shipping vessels to those under US registration/Flag.
At present shipping companies get the best deal possible; protection by US Navy and low cost crew, lower cost vessels, low cost registration.
The real impact of this clear free riding by our economic competitors on the back of the costs to US taxpayers to create/maintain the US Navy/military is to have put US shipyards nearly out of business. I propose that the US govt take a simple policy step to encourage rebuilding of US shipyard capacity that benefits US workers, local and Federal taxes as a result. Not to mention this expanded capacity in domestic shipyards also creates potential higher throughput for any replacement or additional Navy vessels.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2024/02/08/the-us-commercial-ship-industry-has-collapsed-fallout-for-national-security-could-follow/?sh=7cb858cb32f5
This article does an OK job of explaining our problems in shipbuilding. It gets a couple things wrong and doesn’t fully explore other important issues. It focuses mostly on China, which is fine. But, we’re not competitive with other G8G20 builders, like the yards in Northern Europe, Japan & South Korea. The ship that was sung last week was built at Oshima Yard in Nagasaki. I’ve actually been there. The facilities are unbelievably advanced…and gigantic. We simply do not have that kind of infrastructure here. While international yards have the ability to build 1K’+ ships in enclosed sheds with float-out capability, we don’t. Our yards mostly construct outside and use the harrowing gravitational launching systems. It would cost enormous sums of money to improve our facilities to make them competitive.
That article also talks about the elevated costs of US labor, both in shipbuilding and with sailors with the implication that sailors from the Philippines or other similar countries are getting paid next to nothing. They’re not. They’re INCREDIBLY well paid and yet the cost of a US merchant marine is that much more. Nothing demonstrates this more than the cost of a US harbor pilot in US waters. American pilots today can easily make in excess of $400K+ while a pilot in some place like Japan or Germany is making less than half. It’s insane.
In US waters the more Cray Cray aspire the Jones Act kick in. Agreed that the restrictions on domestic port to port shipping is goofy.
As for shipyards…seems simple. We don’t really have commercial yards b/c they got closed down. Seems like an opportunity to invest in current generation facilities at our domestic shipyards. Wages for a small pool of specifically skilled workers are gonna be high until more are trained.
Reworking some of the Jones Act provisions with the maritime unions shouldn’t be too hard if they are given a binary choice of repeal the Jones Act in its entirety or go along with reasonable modifications. The other avenue is use of Defense Production Act.
Bottom line for me is the US should no longer be expected to near the burden of protecting the sea lanes traversed by our economic competition. We should protect our own US flagged vessels and let everyone else do the same. The international shipping issue is THE Achilles heel for globalism. We should make damn sure that if the US is going to have the responsibility for protecting the world that we are first protecting our own mariners in our own US built vessels. Other vessels operated by large shipping concerns who deliberately chose not to place purchase orders for US built vessels or to hire US mariners should expect the Nation whose Flag they fly to protect them…including from the US Navy boarding their vessels for random searches and if contraband found the vessel subject to seizure. IOW we should stop doing this for free and start acting like GB did when they ruled the waves; a more/less benevolent bully.
What’s the difference between a US owned, Liberian flagged freighter and a US owned, American flagged freighter.
It seems we underwrite both equally.
Chinese coast guard attacking Philippines coast guard.
https://twitter.com/ianellisjones/status/1765043548754256180
You have made a good point concerning underwriting frieghters.
As to drones bring used against them: there are Iranian owned, Houthi flown drones and there are Houthi owned, Houthi flown drones. It seems Iran underwrites both equally.
IMO we shouldn’t. The Naval forces of the rest of the world, particularly the EU, should offer protection for.the vessels registered and operating under their Flag.
This is free riding on the US taxpayer dime and it needs to end. The US has less than 200 vessels operating under our registration most of which operate between US ports and not between US and international ports.
Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists represent a core and cherished constituency for crime boss, Biden, and, the vile Dhimmi-crats.
Don’t expect a robust response against Muslim supremacism, terrorism, belligerence and genocidal murders against Jews and Christians, any time soon.