Houthi attacks in Red Sea sink 2 cargo ships, leave 3 people dead

Mohammed Hatem and Erik Olsson, Bloomberg News on Jul 9, 2025

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Houthi attacks in the Red Sea left three crew members dead and sank two cargo vessels in a fresh wave of assaults by the Tehran-backed group along the crucial maritime trade route.

Liberian-flagged MV Eternity C sank on Wednesday after sustaining “significant damage” and had lost all propulsion, the UK Maritime Trade Operations, a liaison between the UK Navy and commercial shipping, said. The Houthis claimed responsibility.

US officials said some surviving crew has been kidnapped. “After killing their shipmates, sinking their ship, and hampering rescue efforts, the Houthi terrorists have kidnapped many surviving crew members of the Eternity C,” the U.S. Embassy in Yemen said in a statement, calling for the sailors’ immediate and unconditional release. The Houthi group earlier said it rescued a number of the ship’s crew members, provided them with medical care and transported them to a safe location.

The vessel was a bulk carrier carrying grains to Somalia for the World Food Programme, and was targeted Monday after completing the trip. The attack represents one of the deadliest carried out by the militant group since it began targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea in 2023 over Israel’s war on Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.

The assaults are also the first Houthi attacks on vessels in the maritime region since late last year and come just weeks after Israel’s military confrontation with Iran and as the Jewish state’s war on Hamas is still raging.

The violence could add to the anxieties of crews being asked to sail through the Red Sea, an unavoidable area when using Egypt’s Suez Canal to cut between Asia and Europe. If the attacks worsen, the violence could boost oil prices, freight rates and insurance costs as it snarls supply chains.

On Sunday, the Houthis used missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire to target another Liberian-flagged vessel, called Magic Seas, the UKMTO said. The Houthis, in a televised statement, claimed responsibility for the assault on that vessel, an Ultramax owned by Greece’s Stem Shipping. Twenty-two individuals on board were rescued, the United Arab Emirates said.

That vessel has also sunk, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The U.S. “will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Wednesday in a statement. The attacks resulted in the “tragic loss of three mariners, with many others injured and the complete loss of the MV Magic Seas and its cargo,” she said.

The Joint Maritime Information Center, which comes under the Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain, said the owners of the Eternity C had other ships that called in Israel, at least one of which was there in early June. The JMIC also said that Magic Seas had visited Israel before, along with recent visits by ships of the same beneficial owner.

The owners of Eternity C and Magic Seas could not immediately be reached for comment on their fleets’ prior port calls.

The attacks also draw into question a ceasefire with the group announced by US President Donald Trump in May following an intense U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign on Houthi targets in Yemen. The Houthis had threatened to return to targeting vessels in the Red Sea following the U.S. decision to join an offensive by Israel on Iran’s nuclear sites.

The attack on the Eternity C happened about about 51 nautical miles west of Yemen’s Hodeida, not far from where the Magic Seas was also struck. The Houthis said the Magic Seas was targeted because it had called on Israeli ports in the past.

Stem Shipping said it had stopped sailing through the Red Sea route after the Houthis attacked the Sounion, a Greek-operated oil tanker, in August last year. The company only restarted after the U.S. announced the truce.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes on Hodeida, Ras Issa and Al-Salif ports on the Red Sea and a power plant in Hodeida on Sunday, according to a post on its X account, following the attack on the Magic Seas.

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(With assistance from Alaric Nightingale, Paul Wallace, Devika Krishna Kumar, Sherif Tarek, Verity Ratcliffe, Catherine Cartier and Weilun Soon.)