Red Sea Vessel Attack Leaves 6 Dead As Trump Says "Watching" Is Strategy

[Anchor]

Gunfire has erupted simultaneously across the seas on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East. The U.S. military attacked a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, while a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels at the entrance of the Red Sea left six people dead. Amidst these developments, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that simply watching is the countermeasure.

[Reporter]

Black smoke billows from a small cargo ship.

The upper part of the vessel bears clear marks of an attack.

In the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance of the Red Sea, an alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked an Egyptian-owned cargo ship.

Yemeni government officials stated that the Houthi rebels fired three ballistic missiles, killing six people, including three Pakistani crew members.

Having declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia on June 20, the Houthis claimed that the ship was transporting military supplies for Saudi Arabia. This marks the first time that Houthi attacks on commercial vessels have resulted in casualties since the outbreak of the war with Iran.

On the same day, in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. military helicopters attacked a Panamanian-flagged vessel.

The U.S. Central Command stated that because the ship was heading toward an Iranian port and attempted to violate the maritime blockade against Iran, it "neutralized the steering gear using two air-to-surface precision-guided missiles."

With gunfire erupting simultaneously in both major crude oil transportation routes, international oil prices rose once again.

Although a sense of crisis has heightened, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that "sitting back and watching how terrible the situation is for Iran" is part of the strategy against Iran.

Critics pointed out that claiming Iran will fail even if left alone effectively amounts to having no countermeasures at all.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz. We control it, not them. We own it.]

Diametrically opposed to Trump's remarks, Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council and a hardliner, raised his voice, declaring that the Strait of Hormuz will never be opened until the United States ends the war and releases frozen funds.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol, Design: Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.