Burning Oil Tanker in Red Sea Is Towed to Safety

A Greek oil tanker that was stuck in the Red Sea since it was attacked by the Houthi militia group last month has been towed to safety without incident, the European Union’s naval mission said.

The three-day effort to rescue the MV Delta Sounion, which was still burning following the Aug. 21 attack, about 90 miles off the coast of Yemen, ended on Monday, the E.U. mission said. There were no leaks from the vessel, which was carrying 150,000 metric tons of crude oil, the equivalent of about one million barrels, it said.

The Houthis, based in Yemen, have sought to disrupt crucial shipping lanes through the Red Sea in a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

No crew members were injured in the attack, but the tanker’s cargo had posed a serious environmental risk and made the rescue effort more complex. Adding to the precarity, the ship was a sitting duck for potential repeat attacks, though the Houthi militia had said it would allow the Sounion’s retrieval.

The U.S. State Department had warned that a spill from the tanker would be four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

The rescue operation began on Saturday, with three warships from the E.U. Red Sea mission guarding the tugboats that would tow the 900-foot long tanker. Fires continued to burn on the deck as the tugboats hitched ropes to the Sounion, according to images posted by the naval mission. It was eventually pulled to an undisclosed location without incident, the mission said.

The E.U. mission was established last year in response to increasing Houthi attacks and mounting insecurity in the Red Sea, a key route for commercial shipping through the Suez Canal.

Known to target vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, the Houthis have stepped up attacks since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

After gaining control of large swathes of territory in northern Yemen, the Houthis, also known as the Ansarrullah Movement, have become the de facto government of the Gulf country. The Shiite militants have waged an armed insurgency in Yemen for more than two decades, with the backing of Iran.