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The US said Yemeni Houthi militants had kidnapped several crew members from a commercial vessel it attacked this week in the Red Sea, killing at least one person.

The assault on the Liberian-flagged Eternity C cargo ship on Monday was the most lethal attack in the Iran-backed militants’ campaign against vessels in the strategic waterway.

The US Embassy in Yemen said on Wednesday night on X: “After killing their comrades, sinking their ship and obstructing rescue efforts, Houthi terrorists have abducted several surviving Eternity C crew members. We demand their immediate and unconditional release.”

The vessel’s manager, Cosmoship, said on Thursday evening that at least one person of 25 on board was dead, while 10 had been rescued; four had not been seen since the attack and another 10 were unaccounted for.

“We understand that the Houthis have picked up some people and we are working through multiple channels as a matter of priority to verify the information,” it said.

The EU’s Aspides naval mission, which protects commercial vessels in the Red Sea, had earlier said those rescued included three crew members from the Philippines and one Greek security guard. Cosmoship said the search continued.

The ship had delivered a cargo for the UN’s World Food Programme to Berbera in Somalia and had been headed to refuel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it said.

The attack, combined with one on a Greek-owned cargo ship at the weekend, marks a revival of the Houthis’ campaign against commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Both ships have sunk after the strikes.

The Yemeni rebels had earlier claimed the Eternity C was targeted because it was bound for Israel, and said it was sunk by an unmanned boat and six missiles. It claimed “special forces from the Yemeni navy” had rescued a number of the ship’s crew.

The militants, who claimed responsibility for both attacks, paused their strikes at the end of last year after they had caused a surge in shipping and insurance costs and forced many large companies to divert cargoes around Africa. 

Protecting commercial shipping through the strategic waterway was the goal of a 52-day campaign launched by the US against the Houthis this spring. The two sides agreed to an Omani-brokered ceasefire on May 6. 

That followed scores of attacks during 2023-24 in which the Houthis sank two ships, set fire to another three and killed four crew members. 

The strikes on the Eternity C took place 50 nautical miles west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, according to the UK’s Maritime Trade Operations Office.

The militants’ earlier attack on the Magic Seas cargo ship at the weekend “was totally unexpected because lately things have quietened down as far as attacks on commercial ships are concerned”, Michael Bodouroglou, chief executive of Greece’s Stem Shipping, told the Financial Times. 

The entire crew of the Magic Seas was rescued after it was hit. Israel struck Yemeni ports soon after that attack.

The Houthis say they are targeting commercial shipping in support of Gaza’s Palestinians, and have said they will continue their attacks until “the aggression on Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted”.

Their first attack on a ship in November 2023 took place after Hamas’s attack on Israel the previous month that triggered the current conflict in Gaza.

The militants paused their campaign in December as Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas negotiated a ceasefire that lasted from January to March.

The Houthis said on Wednesday: “Our operations continue to target the depth of the Israeli entity in occupied Palestine, as well as to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas and to disrupt Umm al-Rashrash [the Arabic name for Israel’s Eilat port] until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”