Attack on Cargo Ship in the Red Sea Kills 2 Crew Members

Two crew members of a Liberian-registered cargo ship were killed when a number of small boats attacked it off the coast of Yemen, Liberian officials told a United Nations meeting on Tuesday, the second attack on a ship in the Red Sea this week.

No one claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but it is likely to renew concerns that a vital trade route is no longer safe despite President Trump’s announcing a truce with the Houthis to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. It followed a similar attack on Sunday, when the Houthis said they had sunk a different ship.

Two other crew members were injured in the latest attack, which struck the Eternity C, a Greek-operated ship, on Monday, according to Liberian delegates to a U.N. meeting in London of the International Maritime Organization.

The incident occurred a day after Yemen’s Houthi militia, which is backed by Iran, said it had attacked the Magic Seas, a different Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel. That ship caught fire and sustained heavy damage, according to Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s antipiracy patrol. Twenty-two crew members were rescued and taken to Djibouti.

The assault on the Magic Seas was the first Houthi attack on a commercial ship since December. It was also the first since Mr. Trump declared a cease-fire between the United States and the Houthis in May, after he launched a bombing campaign on Yemen that he said was an effort to make it safe for ships to travel through the Red Sea.

Yahya al-Sarea, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a statement on social media that the group had targeted the Magic Seas because the company that owns it had “violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine” — a reference to a Houthi pledge to attack any vessels that frequent Israeli ports. He said that the ship “sustained a direct hit.”