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A French naval vessel has rescued all 29 crew members from an oil tanker struck by missiles in the Red Sea, after the most effective attack by Yemen’s Houthis on a commercial ship for more than two months.
Operation Aspides, the EU’s naval effort to combat the threats to commercial shipping from the Houthis, warned on Thursday that the Sounion and its cargo of crude oil now represented a “navigational and environmental hazard”.
The Sounion was set on fire and left drifting by attacks on Wednesday, including three missile strikes. The Houthis claimed responsibility on Thursday evening for the attacks on the Sounion and on another ship, the SW North Wind I.
The Sounion was hit in the Red Sea, 77 nautical miles west of the port of Hodeidah, while the other vessel was targeted further south in the Gulf of Aden, 57 nautical miles off the port city of Aden.
As with the hundreds of other attacks they have launched against commercial ships since November, the Houthis said they were acting in support of Gaza’s Palestinians following the Israeli response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
The Sounion is a Suezmax, the largest tanker type able to use the Suez Canal fully laden and capable of carrying up to 1mn barrels of oil. The vessel was carrying oil from the Iraqi port of Basra to an undisclosed destination.
The UK’s Dubai-based Maritime Trade Operations office (UK MTO) confirmed the separate attack on a vessel that other maritime security sources named as the SW North Wind I. The office said the vessel had suffered “minor damage” from an unmanned surface vessel. The same ship had been the target of five missile attacks on Wednesday, all of which missed.
Monaco-based Sea World Management, the vessel’s manager, did not respond to a request to comment on the incident.
Attacks by the Houthis have prompted many shipowners to reroute around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, bypassing the Suez Canal, a vital link between ports in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The group last inflicted significant damage on a vessel in mid-June.
In its statement on Thursday, Operation Aspides said it had dispatched a ship to rescue the crew “following a request from the master”. While the statement gave no details on the naval vessel’s identity or the number of people rescued, other reports said it was a French craft and 29 crew had been recovered.
“While approaching the area, Aspides destroyed an unmanned surface vessel that posed an imminent threat to the ship and the crew,” the statement said. “All on board the MV [motor vessel] Sounion were subsequently rescued and are being transported to Djibouti, the nearest safe port of call.”
The statement added: “Carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil, the MV Sounion now represents a navigational and environmental hazard. It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation.”
A spokesperson for Greece’s Delta Tankers, Sounion’s owners, said: “We are grateful for the naval support. Plans are in place to move the vessel to a safer destination where a full assessment can be undertaken.”
The Houthis said Sounion was now at risk of sinking.
UK MTO reported on Wednesday that a security team on Sounion initially engaged in an exchange of small-arms fire with armed men in two small boats just before 6am local time that day. The vessel was hit two hours later by two projectiles and suffered a further attack just before 9am local time.
Martin Kelly, senior Middle East analyst at maritime risk consultancy EOS Risk Group, said the attack method reflected how strikes by UK and US forces on the Houthis had degraded many of their capabilities, particularly through attacks on radar installations. That had forced them to use crewed spotter boats, such as those reported by UK MTO.
However, he said the Yemeni militants remained eager to avenge an attack by Israeli jets on July 20 on Hodeidah. “The Houthis are still very much there,” Kelly said.
The hundreds of Houthi strikes on commercial ships since November have killed four mariners, sunk two vessels and caused several serious fires on ships.
Wednesday’s incident was only the fourth to force a crew to abandon a vessel. It was the first successful attack on a commercial ship off Yemen since the Houthis on June 12 attacked the Tutor, a dry bulk carrier, killing one mariner and causing the vessel to sink.