(Bloomberg) -- Iranian-backed Houthi militants have released footage showing masked individuals boarding and setting off bombs on the Sounion, the Greek-flagged tanker that is awaiting salvage after being attacked in the Red Sea.
A short video shared on social media platform X by Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthis, comes a week after the UK Navy said it had spotted fires on the vessel. It’s unclear exactly when the footage was taken. The ship was carrying 150,000 tons of Iraqi crude.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Sounion appeared to be leaking oil. It later clarified that the ship’s crude cargo was still intact, but that it was “the vessel itself” that was leaking some oil. The first attack caused a fire in the engine room, a UK Navy report shows, suggesting the leak is likely the ship’s fuel.
The Houthis, based in Yemen, have been targeting ships in the Red Sea since late last year in solidarity with Hamas over its war with Israel. The 2:39-minute long video provides confirmation the Sounion was set ablaze by explosives. Greece is leading a multinational effort to salvage the tanker, after the Houthis said they would allow access.
Thursday’s video shows masked individuals holding Kalashnikov-style rifles surveying an empty Sounion and includes images of the ship’s bridge in disarray. The footage cuts to a scene of explosives being rigged, before zooming out to multiple video shots that show at least six explosions across the entire length of the tanker.
--With assistance from Alex Longley.
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