AFP Asia Business

‘I thought I was going to die’: sailor recounts Huthi attack in Red Sea

Filipino seafarer Cocoy was off-duty and resting in his cabin when the captain’s voice boomed over the intercom of the cargo ship: “We are under attack”.The 38-year-old realised what sounded like a “knock” from inside the vessel was gunfire being exchanged by ship security and Huthi rebels swarming the ship in small boats.The July 6 assault on the Greek-owned Magic Seas broke a months-long lull in attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on Red Sea shipping, which began after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.Crew members scrambled to reach the “muster station” at the centre of the ship, considered the safest place should a projectile strike the vessel.”There was panic, but we knew we had to move. It’s like we were on autopilot,” said Cocoy, who asked to be referred to by his nickname as he undergoes a debriefing.”(The crew) were in a daze, but they were all rushing to do their assigned jobs for our safety protocol… maybe I looked dazed too,” he told AFP.”There were speedboats from the right, left and back of our ship,” he said, relaying what the ship’s security team had told him. “There was also a bigger boat with around 15 crew who were attempting to board our ship, but luckily, our armed guards were able to stop them.”Of the 22 aboard the ship, 17 were FilipinoThe group huddled inside the muster station for nearly five hours as the ship’s three armed Sri Lankan security guards tried to stave off the attack. “I lost count of how many hits we took,” he told AFP of Huthi projectiles. A Huthi spokesman would later claim that five ballistic and cruise missiles and three drones had been employed in the attack.One would breach the hull.”The flooding had started so we decided to abandon the ship,” Cocoy said. “We deployed our lifeboat, all 22 of us, and left our main vessel.”Filipino sailors make up as much as 30 percent of the world’s commercial shipping force. The nearly $7 billion they sent home in 2023 accounted for about a fifth of remittances sent to the archipelago nation.While a seafarer for more than 15 years, it was Cocoy’s first passage through the Red Sea, and what he called a case of “really bad timing”.”During the gunfight, the faces of my wife and child flashed before my eyes. I kept thinking… will they survive without me?” he said.”I thought I was going to die.”After abandoning ship, Cocoy and his shipmates spent three hours floating in the Red Sea before being picked up by a Panama-flagged container ship.”They were the longest hours of my life,” he said.The Magic Seas was no longer within their sight as it sank beneath the waves.- ‘We were just lucky’ -A day after Cocoy’s ordeal, another vessel crewed largely by Filipino sailors, the Eternity C, was attacked and sunk.Ten of those aboard were rescued. Another 15 are dead or missing.It was the deadliest such assault since three people were killed in a missile attack on another ship in March last year.On Wednesday night, eight Filipinos rescued from the Eternity C landed at Manila’s international airport.The Iran-backed Huthis said last week they had “rescued” an unspecified number of the Eternity C’s crew and taken them to a safe location, prompting charges of kidnapping by the US government.Maritime news journal Lloyd’s List reported six Filipino seafarers as “believed taken hostage”.The Philippine government has so far offered no information about the possibility of either hostages or negotiations.”I feel terrified for the (missing) Eternity C crew,” Cocoy told AFP.”We were just lucky, because all of us survived… I pray that many of their crew can still be located alive.”Cocoy, who is plagued by nightmares of the attack, said he is unsure if he will return to the sea.”What happened to us was not normal,” he said, urging shipowners to find routes that avoid the Red Sea. “It’s something that no one should ever experience.”

Syria says local factions to secure violence-hit Sweida

The Syrian government announced Thursday that local leaders would assume control over security in the city of Sweida in an attempt to end violence that has claimed hundreds of lives and prompted Israel’s military intervention in support of the Druze minority.Syrian forces had deployed to Sweida with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, following days of deadly clashes between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes that a war monitor said left more than 350 people dead. But witnesses said government forces had joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians.Israel responded by carrying out strikes on Syrian forces, including its army headquarters in Damascus, and said it would intensify its attacks if they did not withdraw from the south.Syria said Wednesday its army was withdrawing from Sweida and the United States — a close ally of Israel that has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria — said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised address Thursday that “responsibility” for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions “based on the supreme national interest”.”We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” he said. – ‘Unknown fate’ -Before the government intervention, Druze areas were mainly controlled by fighters from the minority.Addressing the Druze, Sharaa said the community was “a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation… protecting your rights and freedom is one of our priorities”.Syria’s Islamist authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, have had strained relations with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, and have been accused of not doing enough to protect them.March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their coastal heartland, with government affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings. Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.Sharaa said “outlaw groups”, whose leaders “rejected dialogue for many months” had committed “crimes against civilians” in recent days.He said the deployment of defence and interior ministry forces had “succeeded in returning stability” despite the intervention of Israel, which has bombed the country’s south and the capital Damascus. Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the Syrian minority, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on Wednesday about the Israeli bombings, adding “we want it to stop”.Rubio later announced on X that all sides had “agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end”.”This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,” he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.Sharaa hailed US, Arab and Turkish mediation efforts for preventing the conflict from spiralling.  “The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities”, he said, adding it would have sparked “large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate”.He did not specify which Arab countries had mediated.Turkey is a key backer of Syria’s new authorities, while Arab states including Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also shown support for the new government.

China moves to tame ‘irrational competition’ as EV price war persists

Chinese officials are seeking to tame the country’s swelling electric vehicle industry with policies to prevent “irrational competition”, state media said, as a brutal price war ensnares top automakers.Beijing has poured vast state funds into the EV sector, supporting the development and production of less polluting battery-powered vehicles.But a price war has left many startups …

China moves to tame ‘irrational competition’ as EV price war persists Read More »

Syria says pulling troops from Druze heartland after US request

Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.The United States, which is close allies with Israel and has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria, said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, and urged “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Sweida that would bring a halt to military operations there, after clashes that a war monitor said had left more than 350 people dead since Sunday.The Syrian army “has begun withdrawing from the city of Sweida in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement, after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups”, a defence ministry statement said.The statement did not mention any withdrawal of other government security forces, which had deployed to the city on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a previous truce agreed with Druze community leaders following days of deadly fighting with local Bedouin tribes.That ceasefire appeared to have little effect, however, with witnesses reporting that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province had left more than 350 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in “summary executions”.The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the “heinous acts” in Sweida and to punish “all those proven to be involved”.- Damascus strikes -Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.Following the fall of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria.After carrying out air strikes in Sweida province earlier this week in what it said was defence of the Druze, Israel launched a series of attacks on the capital Damascus on Wednesday.AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence ministry complex in ruins after one strike, as smoke billowed over the area.Israel said it had also struck a “military target” in the area of the presidential palace, while a Syrian interior ministry source reported strikes outside the capital in “the vicinity of the Mazzeh (military) airport”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to “leave the Druze in Sweida alone”, and threatened to unleash “painful blows” until government forces pulled back.Syria’s foreign ministry slammed the attacks as a “dangerous escalation”, while Israel’s military chief insisted his forces were “acting with responsibility, restraint and sound judgment”.The Syrian health ministry said that at least three people were killed and 34 wounded in the strikes on Damascus.- Halt to Sweida operations -Announcing the new ceasefire on Wednesday, Syria’s interior ministry said there would be a “total and immediate halt to all military operations”, as well as the formation of a committee comprising government representatives and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation.An AFP correspondent in Sweida, however, reported hearing gunfire in the city even after the announcement.In a video carried by state television, Sheikh Youssef Jarboua, one of Syria’s main Druze spiritual leaders, read out the 10 points of the accord, which also includes “the full integration of the province” of Sweida into the Syrian state.Until now, Druze areas have been controlled by fighters from the minority community.The latest fighting was the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.The clashes between the Bedouin and the Druze that first prompted the government deployment were triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, according to the Observatory. The two groups have been at loggerheads for decades.The Islamist authorities have had strained relations with Syria’s patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities, and have been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to protect them.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on Wednesday about the Israeli bombings, adding “we want it to stop”.A State Department spokesperson said Washington was also asking Syria to “withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate”.Rubio later announced on X that all sides had “agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end”.”This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,” he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.burs/ami/smw/gv/aks