“The vessel was en route to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia when it was struck. Its crew includes 22 Filipinos and three Indian armed guards,” an official from Cosmoship, the Greek company that owns the vessel, told POLITICO. It was not clear whether the attack had ended, as the comms were impacted and the crew could not be contacted, the official added.
Two senior Greek government officials confirmed the attack and the nationalities of the people on board.
The attack came hours after Houthi militants claimed responsibility for a similar assault on another Greek-owned ship in the Red Sea, the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas, which they claimed to have sunk. The vessel was attacked on Sunday with drones, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, forcing its crew to abandon ship. They were picked up by a passing vessel and transferred to Djibouti.
POLITICO contacted a spokesperson for the Houthi rebels by email but didn’t immediately receive a reply.
Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have fired at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade in what the group has described as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The Israeli military said it struck Houthi-held Yemeni ports early Monday for the first time in nearly a month.
