Greek-flagged tanker Sounion hit by Houthis appears to be leaking oil, Pentagon says

This framework drawback from video released by the Ansar Allah Media Office, the media limb of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, connected Fri, shows what the Houthis picture arsenic 1 of their attacks connected the Greek-flagged lipid tanker Sounion successful the Red Sea. The logo successful the bottommost righthand country of the representation reads, successful Arabic, “Yemeni War Media.” [Ansar Allah Media Office via AP]

The Greek-flagged crude lipid tanker Sounion that was precocious attacked by Yemen’s Houthis is inactive connected occurrence successful the Red Sea and present appears to beryllium leaking oil, a Pentagon spokesperson said connected Tuesday.

The Sounion was targeted past week by aggregate projectiles disconnected Yemen’s larboard metropolis of Hodeidah. The Houthis, who power Yemen’s astir populous regions, said they attacked it successful the Red Sea, arsenic the Iran-aligned radical has been attacking ships successful solidarity with Palestinians successful the warfare betwixt Israel and Hamas successful Gaza.

Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said that a 3rd enactment had tried to nonstop 2 tugs to assistance salvage the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to onslaught them. He said the tanker was carrying astir 1 cardinal barrels of crude oil.

“These are simply reckless acts of coercion which proceed to destabilize planetary and determination commerce, enactment the lives of guiltless civilian mariners astatine hazard and imperil the vibrant maritime ecosystem successful the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Houthis’ ain backyard,” Ryder said.

He added that the U.S. subject was moving with different partners successful the portion to find however to assistance the vas and mitigate imaginable biology impact.

The Iran-aligned radical has sunk 2 ships and killed astatine slightest 3 unit members successful their 10-month campaign, which has upended planetary water shipping by forcing vas owners to debar the Suez Canal shortcut.

The Houthis said they attacked the tanker successful portion due to the fact that Delta Tankers violated its prohibition connected “entry to the ports of occupied Palestine,” Houthi subject spokesperson Yahya Saree had said successful a televised speech.

The Sounion was the 3rd vas operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers to beryllium attacked successful the Red Sea this month. The onslaught caused a occurrence onboard, which the unit extinguished, Delta Tankers said successful a statement.

The largest recorded ship-source spill was successful 1979, erstwhile astir 287,000 metric tons of lipid escaped from the Atlantic Empress aft it collided with different crude bearer successful the Caribbean Sea disconnected the seashore of Tobago during a storm, according to International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation.

(Reuters)