Red Sea attacks: French destroyer rescues 29 mariners from stricken oil tanker [Video]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –

A French destroyer rescued 29 mariners from an oil tanker that came under repeated attack in the Red Sea, officials said Thursday, while also destroying a bomb-carrying drone boat in the area.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels are suspected to have carried out the assault on the Sounion, now abandoned in the waterway. The attack, the most serious in the Red Sea in weeks, comes during a monthslong campaign by Houthis targeting ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that has disrupted a trade route through which US$1 trillion in cargo typically passes each year.

The Sounion is now at anchor in the Red Sea and no longer drifting, the European Union’s Operation Aspides said. However, it wasn’t clear if the vessel was still ablaze. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who have been taken to …