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Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday that a cargo ship they struck with gunfire, rockets and explosive-laden remote-controlled boats had sunk in the Red Sea, after their first known attack on the high seas this year.
The ship’s Greek operator Stem Shipping told Reuters it had no independent verification. Reuters could also not immediately verify whether the ship had sunk.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s assault and said they had allowed the 19 crew members to disembark from the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Magic Seas.
All crew were rescued by a passing merchant vessel and were expected to arrive in Djibouti later on Monday, Stem Shipping told Reuters.
The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it had successfully rescued all 22 people aboard the Magic Seas after an AD Ports Group vessel, Safeen Prism, responded to a distress call from the commercial ship following an attack in the Red Sea.
The Magic Seas was taking on water after the attack and remained at risk of sinking, the company’s representative, Michael Bodouroglou, had said earlier. The ship had been carrying iron and fertiliser from China to Turkey.
The attack ended half a year of calm in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, where Houthi attacks from the end of 2023 through late 2024 had disrupted shipping between Europe and Asia through the Suez Canal.
The Houthis launched more than 100 attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandab Strait that links them, in what they described as solidarity with the Palestinians after war erupted in Gaza in 2023. But those attacks had halted this year, with the last known to have taken place in December.
