After an attack by Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen, the crew of a ship was evacuated by soldiers.
The crew of a ship which was taking on water after an attack in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen was evacuated by soldiers, the British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Friday. The MV Tutor, pierced by a drone on Wednesday, “has been abandoned and is drifting” east of Hodeida, a port city held by Yemeni rebels in the west of the country, added the British agency, without specifying which army the soldiers who evacuated the crew belonged to, or if they are part of the coalition set up by the United States to secure the Red Sea.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos earlier pledged to help the Filipino sailors on board and transfer them to Djibouti, with the help of the UKMTO. “To the Filipino sailors aboard the MV Tutor that was bombed and who don’t know what to do right now; We are doing everything in our power.”, he said in a press release. The Liberian-flagged merchant ship, belonging to a Greek company, was hit by a drone and a second time by “unidentified aerial projectile”the central command of the American army said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred in a context marked by repeated attacks launched since November by the Houthis against merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In power in a large part of Yemen at war since their capture of the capital Sanaa in 2014, these allies of Iran say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is waging a war against Hamas after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil. Yemeni insurgents claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, saying they used “a naval drone, aerial drones and ballistic missiles”.
