Attacks off Yemen Targeted 2 Ships Carrying Cargo for US Defense, State Departments

A truck driver with his vehicle makes his way past containers with the logo of Danish shipping giant Maersk and Maersk Sealand stacked at a transshipment station in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on January 23, 2024. (AFP)
A truck driver with his vehicle makes his way past containers with the logo of Danish shipping giant Maersk and Maersk Sealand stacked at a transshipment station in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on January 23, 2024. (AFP)
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Attacks off Yemen Targeted 2 Ships Carrying Cargo for US Defense, State Departments

A truck driver with his vehicle makes his way past containers with the logo of Danish shipping giant Maersk and Maersk Sealand stacked at a transshipment station in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on January 23, 2024. (AFP)
A truck driver with his vehicle makes his way past containers with the logo of Danish shipping giant Maersk and Maersk Sealand stacked at a transshipment station in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on January 23, 2024. (AFP)

Two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the US Defense and State departments came under attack off Yemen on Wednesday, officials said, with the US Navy intercepting some of the incoming fire. Suspicion immediately fell on Yemen’s Houthi militias for carrying out the assault.

The attacks on the container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake further raise the stakes of the group’s ongoing attacks on shipping through the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The US and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes seeking to stop the attacks.

Danish shipper Maersk, in a statement to The Associated Press, identified two of its vessels affected by the attacks as the US-flagged container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake. It said the US Navy was accompanying its ships at the time.

“While en route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the US Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles,” Maersk said. “The crew, ship, and cargo are safe and unharmed. The US Navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden.”

Maersk said both vessels carried cargo belonging to the US Defense and State Departments, as well as other government agencies, meaning they were “afforded the protection of the US Navy for passage through the strait.”

The ships were operated by Maersk Line, a US subsidiary of Maersk that is “suspending transits in the region until further notice,” the company said.

The US military’s Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Red Crescent Says Israeli Troops Shot Gaza Crew ‘with Intent to Kill'

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP)
Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP)
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Red Crescent Says Israeli Troops Shot Gaza Crew ‘with Intent to Kill'

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP)
Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP)

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Monday that 15 medics and rescuers killed by Israeli forces last month in Gaza were shot in the upper body with "intent to kill".

The killings occurred in the southern Gaza Strip on March 23, days into a renewed Israeli offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory, and have since sparked international condemnation.

Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told journalists in Ramallah that an autopsy revealed that "all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill".

He called for an international probe into the killings, which the Israeli military has separately announced it was investigating.

"We call on the world to form an independent and impartial international commission of inquiry into the circumstances of the deliberate killing of the ambulance crews in the Gaza Strip," Khatib said.

The Israeli military has said its soldiers fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles", with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.

But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military's account.

The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.

Eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Gaza civil defense agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugee were killed in the incident.

Their bodies were found buried near the site of the shooting in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah city, in what the UN humanitarian office OCHA described as a mass grave.

"Why did you hide the bodies?" Khatib said of the Israeli forces involved in the attack.

Hamas has accused Israel of a "deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves".

- 'War crimes' -

An Israeli military official, briefing journalists over the weekend on condition of anonymity, said troops first fired at a vehicle carrying members of Hamas internal security force, killing two and detaining another.

Two hours later, at 6:00 am on March 23, the soldiers "received a report from the aerial coverage that there is a convoy moving in the dark in a suspicious way towards them" and "opened fire from far", said the official.

"The forces are not trying to hide anything. They thought they had an encounter with terrorists."

According to OCHA the first team, which it said comprised of rescuers and not Hamas fighters, was hit by Israeli forces at dawn.

In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck, OCHA said.

The United Nations' human rights chief Volker Turk said last week the shootings may constitute "war crimes".

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using ambulances to transport militants and weapons in Gaza, charges the group has rejected.

On Monday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said that the among the 15 killed were six Hamas fighters.

"What were Hamas terrorists doing in ambulances?" he said.

Khatib dismissed the accusation, saying Israel has failed "to prove even once in 50 years that the Red Crescent or its crews carry or use weapons".