Six crew members have been found in the Red Sea after the Iran-backed Houthis attacked a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, killing at least three of them and wounding several others.
A European naval force said on Wednesday that 19 people who had been travelling on the Eternity C vessel were still missing.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the EU’s Operation Aspides confirmed that the ship's crew consisted of 22 sailors and a security team of three.
The Yemeni rebels first targeted the Greek-owned ship on Monday evening, according to European and US officials.
The ship had been making its way north towards the Suez Canal before it came under attack from drones and armed men in small boats.
In an advisory, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said that “search and rescue operations commenced overnight” on Wednesday to help those who had been travelling onboard.
Although the ship status could not be immediately confirmed, reports on Wednesday suggested that it had sunk.
The Houthi attack against the Eternity C came shortly after the rebel group, which controls much of northern and western Yemen, targeted the cargo vessel the Magic Seas on Sunday.
After its crew was rescued, the Magic Seas sank earlier this week.
Both attacks happened in the same area roughly 100 kilometres southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeida, which the Houthis control.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the US State Department condemned the recent events in the Red Sea.
“The United States condemns the unprovoked Houthi terror attack on the civilian cargo vessels MV Magic Seas and MV Eternity C in the Red Sea, which resulted in the tragic loss of three mariners, with many others injured and the complete loss of the MV Magic Seas and its cargo,” it said.
“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” the statement added.
The assaults mark the first Houthi attacks in the important maritime corridor since last year. The group began targeting ships there in late 2023 over Israel’s war in Gaza.
