The Greek shipping ministry identified the oil tanker as the Sounion, suspected to have been hit by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
ADVERTISEMENTA French destroyer has rescued 29 mariners from an oil tanker that came under repeated attack in the Red Sea on Thursday.
The tanker, identified as the Sounion by the Greek shipping ministry, is suspected to have been attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels as part of their months-long campaign targeting ships in the Red Sea.
French officials said they also destroyed a bomb-carrying drone boat in the area.
Earlier on Thursday, the British military reported that the Sounion was drifting ablaze in the ocean after suffering repeated attacks.
The Sounion is now at anchor in the Red Sea and no longer drifting, according to the European Union’s Operation Aspides. However, it wasn’t clear if the vessel was still ablaze.
Military officials did not name the French destroyer involved in the rescue.
In the attack on Wednesday, men on small boats first opened fire with small arms about 140 kilometres west of the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said.
The Houthis did not claim responsibility for the attack, but acknowledged retaliatory US airstrikes in Hodeida which the American military’s Central Command claimed destroyed a Houthi surface-to-air missile and radar system.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have targeted over 80 vessels in the Red Sea with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October.
During their campaign, they have seized one vessel and sank two others, killing four sailors.
The rebels claim they are targeting ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK in order to retaliate against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, however multiple ships that have been attacked have little connection to the conflict.
A US-led coalition has attempted to intercept missiles and drones launched by the rebels, which have threatened to disrupt a trade route through which an estimated $1 trillion in cargo passes each year.
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has raised fears of a wider conflict, with the US military ordering an additional F-22 fighter jets into the region.
America has also ordered the USS Georgia-guided missile submarine into the Middle East, while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group is located in the Gulf of Oman.
