Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels introduced Thursday that they had booby-trapped and detonated the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, stranded within the Pink Sea after a drone and missile assault earlier this month.
The group’s chief mentioned the operation passed off earlier this week. Since then, the rebels have agreed to permit rescue groups to entry the ship.
A video shared on the rebels’ media shops confirmed masked males planting explosives on the vessel after which detonating them, inflicting a number of fires on board.
The Sounion was hit by the Huthis off the coast of Hodeida on August 21, based on the UKMTO maritime company, which mentioned on the time the assault brought on a fireplace and lower engine energy.
The European Union’s Pink Sea naval mission, Aspides, had rescued its 25 crew members final week, leaving the vessel — now susceptible to inflicting an oil spill — deserted.
The EU naval drive was fashioned in February to guard service provider vessels within the Pink Sea from assaults by the Huthi rebels, who’ve waged a marketing campaign towards worldwide transport that they are saying is meant to indicate solidarity with Palestinian group Hamas in its battle with Israel within the Gaza Strip.
Insurgent chief Abdul Malik al-Huthi on Thursday mentioned his forces had “stormed” the tanker earlier this week.
He added in a speech that the Sounion had violated the Huthis’ “embargo” on transport to Israeli ports.
The vessel had departed from Iraq and was destined for a port close to Athens, carrying 150,000 metric tons of crude oil, based on Greek port authorities.
On Wednesday, Iran’s mission to the UN mentioned the Tehran-backed Huthis had agreed to “a short lived truce for the entry of tugboats and rescue ships into the incident space”, citing fires and “subsequent environmental hazards”.
A Huthi spokesman confirmed late Wednesday on social media the group had granted a request from “quite a few worldwide events, notably European” to entry the vessel.
The Aspides mission mentioned on Thursday there have been “reviews that a number of fires have been detected in a number of areas on the principle deck of the vessel”, however “there is no oil spill, and the ship continues to be anchored and never drifting”.
The EU mission was “making ready to facilitate any programs of motion, in coordination with European authorities and neighbouring international locations, to avert a catastrophic environmental disaster”, it mentioned on social media platform X.
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