Yemen‘s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility Wednesday for a deadly attack that sank a merchant vessel earlier this week, their second attack on Red Sea shipping in 24 hours as they resumed their campaign in the key waterway.
The Eternity C, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, was badly damaged in the attack that started on Monday and continued into Tuesday, before the ship sank.
Yemen’s rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, which came a day after they boarded and sank the Magic Seas – their first attack on shipping this year.
“The naval force of the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted the ship Eternity C,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, claiming that the vessel was headed for the Israeli port of Eilat and was attacked in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The resumed attacks mark the end of a months-long lull and threaten a May ceasefire with the United States that ended weeks of strikes on Houthi targets. The latest Houthi attack came as Israel conducted its first strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since the Israel-Iran ceasefire, attacking ports and a power plant around midnight local time Sunday night into Monday morning.
Read moreIsrael strikes Houthi targets at Yemen ports, power plant
The attack on the Eternity C, which also killed four crew members, represents the most serious assault carried out by the Houthis in the crucial maritime trade route that once saw $1 trillion in cargo pass through annually.
From November 2023 until the following December, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones in a campaign the rebels say is a display of support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Iranian-backed rebels stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war.
The attack on the Eternity C, as well as the sinking of the bulk carrier Magic Seas in another attack Sunday, raise new questions about the Red Sea’s safety as ships had slowly begun returning to its waters. Meanwhile, a new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war — as well as the future of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program — remain in the balance.
Houthis kidnapped crew, US embassy says
Rescuers on Wednesday pulled six crew members alive from the Red Sea and 15 were still missing from the Eternity C.
Four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C were killed before the rest of the crew abandoned the vessel, which sank on Wednesday morning after being attacked on Monday and Tuesday, sources at security companies involved in a rescue operation told Reuters.
The six seafarers who were rescued had spent more than 24 hours in the water, they said.
Houthi spokesman Saree said his group had “moved to rescue a number of the ship’s crew”.
In a televised address, he said, “The Yemeni Navy responded to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care, and transport them to a safe location”.
The attack was carried out with an unmanned vessel and six cruise and ballistic missiles, Saree added.
Operation Aspides – the EU naval task force in the Red Sea – told AFP that five Filipinos and one Indian had been rescued.
In a statement posted on X Wednesday, the US embassy in Yemen said the Houthis had kidnapped Eternity C crew members.
“After killing their shipmates, sinking their ship, and hampering rescue efforts, the Houthi terrorists have kidnapped many surviving crew members of the Eternity C,” said the US embassy in Yemen.
‘Cease aggression’
Saree warned “all companies dealing with the ports of occupied Palestine (Israel) that their ships and crews will be targeted” until Israel has been forced to “lift the siege on our brothers in Gaza, cease the aggression against them and end the ongoing war”.
The rebels released a video showing masked gunmen storming the Magic Seas and simultaneous explosions that scuttled the bulk carrier.
Houthi attacks have prompted many shipping firms to make the time-consuming detour around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the Red Sea, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade.
Israel, which has also come under direct missile and drone attack by the Houthis, has carried out multiple strikes on rebel targets in Yemen.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
