Athens (AFP)
The towing operation of an oil tanker that was attacked by the Houthis last August and posed an environmental threat began yesterday, a source in the Greek Defense Ministry told Agence France-Presse. The source said that the Greek-flagged oil tanker “Sunion”, which was evacuated of its crew after being targeted, is being towed north under military escort. The ship was attacked last month by the Houthis off the coast of Hodeidah while carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil.
The source told Agence France-Presse that the tugboat “Ion Pelagos” began to gradually tow the tanker towards the north, adding that the ships’ radars were turned off for security reasons.
The European Aspidis mission deployed in the region had previously announced that the Qatar Sunion was necessary to avoid a potential environmental disaster in the region.
“To achieve this, many government and private entities are working together,” she added.
The Sunion was hit by a missile off the coast of Hodeidah on August 21, threatening an oil spill four times larger than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989. The Sunion’s crew of 23 Filipinos and two Russians were evacuated the next day by a French frigate operating as part of the European mission Aspedes.
The European naval force was formed in February of this year to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthis, who began targeting global commercial maritime navigation in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden last November.
Since then, Houthi attacks have killed at least four sailors and sunk two ships.
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