Tanker “Sounion” attacked by the Houthi appears to be leaking oil

The Greek-flagged crude oil tanker Sounion, which was recently attacked by the Houthis in Yemen, is still burning in the Red Sea and now appears to be leaking oil, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Sounion was attacked by several missiles last week off the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. The Houthis, who control Yemen's most populous regions, said they had attacked the Sounion in the Red Sea. The Iran-aligned group attacks ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said a third party tried to send two tugboats to salvage the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to attack them. He said the tanker was carrying about a million barrels of crude oil.

“These are simply reckless acts of terrorism that continue to destabilize global and regional trade, endanger the lives of innocent civilian seafarers, and threaten the vibrant maritime ecosystem in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Houthis' backyard,” Ryder said.

He added that the U.S. military is working with other partners in the region to determine how to help the ship and mitigate any potential environmental impacts.

The Iran-aligned group has sunk two ships and killed at least three crew members during its 10-month campaign. The campaign has upended global maritime shipping as ship owners have been forced to avoid the shortcut through the Suez Canal.

The Houthis said they attacked the tanker in part because Delta Tankers had violated the ban on “entering the ports of occupied Palestine,” Houthis military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised address.

The Sounion was the third ship owned by Athens-based Delta Tankers to be attacked in the Red Sea this month. The attack caused a fire on board, which the crew extinguished, Delta Tankers said in a statement.

The largest shipping spill ever recorded occurred in 1979, when about 287,000 tons of oil leaked from the Atlantic Empress after it collided with another crude oil tanker during a storm in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Tobago, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation.

(Reuters – Reporting by Idrees Ali, Editing by Jonathan Oatis)