Robert Wright of the Financial Times reports that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for strikes on a Greek-owned vessel near a Yemeni port. He writes:
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 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.
Read more here.
