Six crew members have been rescued and at least three others killed after a cargo ship was attacked by Yemen’s Houthis and sank in the Red Sea, a European naval mission says.<\/p>\n The Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C was carrying 25 crew when it sustained significant damage and lost all propulsion after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades fired from small boats on Monday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency.<\/p>\n The attack continued on Tuesday and search rescue operations commenced overnight.<\/p>\n The Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked the Eternity C because it was heading to Israel, and that they took an unspecified number of crew to a “safe location”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The US embassy in Yemen said the Houthis had “kidnapped many surviving crew members” and called for their immediate release.<\/p>\n Authorities in the Philippines said 21 of the crew were citizens. Another of them is a Russian national who was severely wounded in the attack and lost a leg.<\/p>\n It is the second vessel the Houthis have sunk in a week, after the group on Sunday launched missiles and drones at another Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ship, Magic Seas, which they claimed “belong[ed] to a company that violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine”.<\/p>\n Video footage released by the Houthis on Tuesday showed armed men boarding the vessel and setting off a series of explosions which caused it to sink.<\/p>\n All 22 crew of Magic Seas were safely rescued by a passing merchant vessel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted around 70 merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.<\/p>\n They have now sunk four ships, seized a fifth, and killed at least seven crew members.<\/p>\n The group has said it is acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK, which have carried out air strikes on Yemen in response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Wednesday the EU’s naval mission in the Red Sea, Operation Aspides, said it was participating in the international response to the attack on the Eternity C and that “currently six castaway crew members have been recovered from the sea”.<\/p>\n An Aspides official told AFP news agency that five were Filipinos and one was Indian, and that 19 others were still missing.<\/p>\n The Greece-based maritime security firm Diaplous released a video on Wednesday that showed the rescue of at least five seafarers who it said had spent more then 24 hours in the water, according to Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n “We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light,” Diaplous said.<\/p>\n Reuters also cited maritime security firms as saying that the death toll was four.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The US state department condemned the attacks on the Magic Seas and Eternity C, which it said “demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security”.<\/p>\n “The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community.”<\/p>\n In a separate development on Thursday, Israel’s military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. It gave no further details.<\/p>\n In May, the Houthis agreed a ceasefire deal with the US following seven weeks of intensified US strikes on Yemen in response to the attacks on international shipping.<\/p>\n However, they said the agreement did not include an end to attacks on Israel, which has conducted multiple rounds of retaliatory strikes on Yemen.<\/p>\n The secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) called for intensified diplomatic efforts following the new wave of attacks.<\/p>\n “After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation,” Arsenio Dominguez said.<\/p>\n “Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause,” he warned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"EPA](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/524b\/live\/f1c4ad60-5d0a-11f0-938b-b91000d5e8cf.jpg.webp\")
EPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250701-150711-e3d94715db-web-2.24.1-1\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Diaplous\/Handout](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/3bf2\/live\/c08c0e10-5cdc-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp\")
Diaplous\/Handout via Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n