The 25 crew members were brought to Djibouti, said a representative of the EU naval mission “Aspides” to protect shipping routes. On Thursday evening, the Houthi militia, allied with Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack on the “Sounion”.
The British authority United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) later confirmed information from security sources that the ship was anchored. According to the sources, it is now located between Yemen and Eritrea.
It was the third attack on a ship belonging to the Athens-based shipping company Delta Tankers in the Red Sea this month. The Houthi militia in Yemen has repeatedly attacked merchant ships and justified this as solidarity with Hamas in the war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The ship was hit by several projectiles on Wednesday about 77 nautical miles west of the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. The result was a fire on board and a failure of the engines, so that the tanker was drifting in the Red Sea, unable to maneuver. Before the crew was evacuated, according to a representative of the EU naval mission, an unmanned surface vehicle that posed a threat to the “Sounion” was destroyed.
