The U.S. Coast Guard has called off the search for 11 people believed missing after a boat thought to be carrying more than two dozen people sank off Mexico’s Baja California coast.
Rescuers saved 16 of those who were on board, including several who had suspected shark bites, the Coast Guard said. Crews spent nearly four days looking for survivors before ending the search late Sunday.
The boat capsized in an area frequented by smugglers outside of U.S. waters, according to the Coast Guard. Survivors pulled from the water early Friday told officials there were 27 people on board.
A mayday call came from someone on the boat around 1 a.m. Friday, said Coast Guard Lt. Santiago Tamburini. A helicopter reached the site two hours later, and it took about 90 minutes to rescue the 16 people, Tamburini said.
The Mexican consulate in San Diego said all those rescued were Mexican nationals. The Coast Guard has said Customs and Border Protection was investigating and interviewing the survivors. The agency did not immediately respond to requests on Monday for an update on the status of the federal investigation.
Both the Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy along with the Mexican Navy searched the waters with helicopters, planes and multiple boats.
The boat went down about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Ensenada, Mexico. The boat’s origin and destination were not clear.
The region is popular with fishing and leisure boats, but some attempts to transport migrants from Mexico to the U.S. have turned deadly in past years.
In May 2025, at least three people died when a boat flipped off the coast north of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2023, eight people were killed in one of the deadliest maritime smuggling accidents off the U.S. coast, when two boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog and one capsized in the surf.
Traffic passes through the front gate at Coast Guard Station San Diego, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter lifts off at Coast Guard Station San Diego, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
CAIRO (AP) — Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck Yemeni government forces with ballistic missiles on Monday, killing at least 53 soldiers at a military camp in one of the deadliest attacks since a resurgence in fighting this summer, Yemeni military officials said.
The attack wounded an additional 200 recruits at the military camp in the southern province of Shabwa, the provincial government there said. The rebels acknowledged targeting the camp.
The fighting between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces is a widening front in the Iran war that began in February. The escalation shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped fighting in Yemen’s civil war.
The Houthis have put their growing military capabilities on display on multiple fronts in recent weeks, repeatedly striking Saudi Arabia’s main international airport hundreds of miles (kilometers) away and seizing territory inside Yemen near a key shipping chokepoint.
Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Iraq provide expertise, training and sophisticated weapons to the Houthis, according to U.N. and other experts. Iran denies arming the Houthis, which would violate a U.N. embargo.
The provincial government in Shabwa said the death toll from Monday's attack could rise. “This bloody, treacherous attack targeted new recruits in the training and preparation phase and is considered an extremely critical military escalation and a blatant aggression on the security and stability of Shabwa province,” the statement said.
It called on Yemen’s president, the Saudi-led coalition and the government to expedite air defense and early warning systems to reinforce Shabwa’s capabilities.
The head of Yemen's ruling Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, promised a “firm response” and said the attack reflects the Houthis’ "approach of resorting to cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures or their Iranian-backed sabotage plots falter.”
One Yemeni military official said the missiles struck while recruits were lining up in formation for a training session. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
A Houthi military spokesman claimed the camp was targeted because it is operated by Saudi officers, and that some of them were killed in the attack — though he provided no evidence. The Saudi government did not immediately comment.
On Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry blamed Saudi-led forces for an airstrike that killed at least nine people in Yemen’s rebel-held northern province of Saada. Five children and two women were killed in the attack, one of several that killed or wounded more than 30 people over the weekend, according to the rebels.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis, a Shiite religious and political movement rooted in northern Yemen, are increasingly attacking Saudi Arabia because it supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government in the civil war. The Sunni kingdom, which has long feared the emergence of a well-armed ally of Shiite Iran on its border, joined the war in 2015 after the rebels seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have targeted Saudi airports, oil and military facilities, and the headquarters of Saudi oil giant Aramco.
On Monday, Houthi rebels claimed to have carried out six attacks targeting oil infrastructure, airports and military sites across Saudi Arabia, including facilities in the kingdom’s east and the international airport in the capital, Riyadh. But the group did not specify when the attacks took place.
The Saudi Civil Defense issued danger alerts but no immediate reports of casualties or damage. However, in a sign that the Houthi attacks are unsettling Saudi society, the kingdom on Monday said it was canceling a global investment conference scheduled for next week that was expected to draw executives from Wall Street and beyond.
In Yemen, the Houthis recently seized more territory along the Red Sea coast and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive earlier this month to dislodge the rebels from that strategic perch and retake the territory.
Monday marked five years since Houthis detained more than 20 Yemeni staff of the U.S. embassy in Sana’a. The embassy had suspended operations in 2015 but local staff still provided security and basic maintenance of the facility. The State Department on Monday called for their “immediate and unconditional release.”
Associated Press writer Ahmed al-Haj in Aden, Yemen, contributed to this report.
People ride in a pickup truck during a funeral procession for a Houthi officer in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. The Arabic banner reads, "Martyr Mazen Abdallah." (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
