Navy rescues crew from merchant vessel struck by Houthis in Red Sea

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Sailors from the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group airlifted the crew of a merchant vessel attacked by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea on Saturday, U.S. officials said.

The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk cargo carrier M/V Tutor was struck by a Houthi uncrewed surface vessel while sailing in the Red Sea on Wednesday, resulting in severe flooding and damage to the engine room, according to a Navy release.

“The crew abandoned ship and were rescued by USS Philippine Sea and partner forces,” U.S. Central Command said in a separate statement. “(The) Tutor remains in the Red Sea and is slowly taking on water.”

A helicopter from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 74 airlifted 24 civilian mariners from the Tutor to the USS Philippine Sea, service officials said. They were then transported to the USS Eisenhower by helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 7. After medical checks on the Eisenhower, the mariners were flown ashore for further care.

“Despite these senseless attacks on innocent mariners just doing their job, the Philippine Sea crew stand ready to help preserve safety of life at sea, always,” said Capt. Steven Liberty, Philippine Sea’s commanding officer, in a Navy release.

Aircraft from the USS Philippine Sea also medically evacuated a mariner injured in a separate Houthi attack on a different merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday.

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Officials reported that one civilian mariner from the Tutor remained missing as of Sunday. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center stated Saturday afternoon that the vessel was “still on fire and sinking.”

The missing sailor is Filipino, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency, which cited Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac. He said most of the Tutor’s 22 mariners were from the Philippines.

“We’re trying to account for the particular seafarer in the ship and are praying that we could find him,” he said Friday night.

U.S. officials reported Saturday that the military had launched a wave of attacks targeting radar sites operated by Houthi rebels.

The attacks come as the U.S. Navy faces the most intense combat it has seen since World War II in trying to counter the Houthi campaign — attacks the rebels say are meant to halt the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, the Iranian-backed rebel assaults often see the Houthis target ships and mariners who have nothing to do with the war while traffic remains halved through a corridor vital for cargo and energy shipments between Asia, Europe and the Mideast.

U.S. strikes destroyed seven radars within Houthi-controlled territory, the military’s Central Command said. It did not elaborate on how the sites were destroyed and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.

“These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger commercial shipping,” Central Command said in a statement.

The U.S. separately destroyed two bomb-laden drone boats in the Red Sea, as well as a drone launched by the Houthis over the waterway, it said.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, did not acknowledge the strikes, nor any military losses. That’s been typical since the U.S. began launching airstrikes targeting the rebels.

Also on Saturday, Central Command said the vessel M/V Anna Meta rescued crew members from the cargo carrier M/V Verbena, which was struck Thursday in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen in two separate missile attacks by the Houthis.

The crew abandoned ship after being unable to bring fires on the vessel under control. One mariner was severely wounded.

CENTCOM said the Verbena is a Palauan-flagged, Ukrainian-owned and Polish-operated bulk cargo carrier that had docked in Malaysia and was on its way to Italy carrying wood.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three mariners, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.

The war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, according to Gaza health officials, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

“The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of third-country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” Central Command said. “The ongoing threat to international commerce caused by the Houthis in fact makes it harder to deliver badly needed assistance to the people of Yemen as well as Gaza.”

The attacks continued early Sunday as two explosions struck in close proximity to another ship in the Red Sea, though the ship and crew were safe, the British military said.