Drones strike a container ship off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast and its crew members are rescued

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Three maritime drones struck a container ship sailing in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria on Wednesday, the country’s defense minister said, the latest in a string of such incidents on NATO’s eastern flank. The attack on the Liberian-flagged container ship, the Contship Jet, occurred a little before 1 p.m. local time about 21 nautical miles southeast of the coastal town of Shabla, near Cape Kaliakra in northeastern Bulgaria, Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told reporters.The crew evacuated the vessel and were eventually taken on board rescue vessels of the Bulgarian Navy and border police, according to the state news agency BTA. The rescued sailors — 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians — were being transported to the port city of Varna for medical checks.The ship was en route from Israel’s port of Haifa to Constanța in Romania. It was not immediately clear what the 421 containers on board were carrying.The incident took place as defense ministers from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey were meeting in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, for trilateral talks focused on security in the Black Sea region.In a statement after the talks, the three NATO countries strongly con...