Navy rescues merchant ship crew in the Red Sea and bombs Houthi positions

The US Navy rescued two dozen civilians in the Red Sea after their ship was badly damaged by the Yemeni Houthi militia. The air rescue took place after the Houthi were able to hit two merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden last week.

On Saturday, June 15, a helicopter from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 74 picked up 24 merchant seamen from the Tutor, a Greek ship flying the Liberian flag. The civilian crew was initially transferred to the USS Philippine Sea before being transferred to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for medical evaluation. The Tutor was struck by an unmanned surface drone belonging to the Houthis, causing severe flooding in the ship and engine failure. According to US Central Command, one sailor from the Tutor has been missing since the attack.

The attack on the Tutor was the Houthis’ first successful attack on a vessel using unmanned surface vessels. Previous attempts failed, and the group has focused primarily on airstrikes using missiles or disposable attack drones. The Houthis continue to attack commercial vessels in the waters off Yemen, even after months of airstrikes and bombardments on Houthis-controlled sites by the U.S.-led multinational coalition.

In response to the attack, American forces destroyed several radar sites in Yemen that were used to plan attacks on shipping lanes, CENTCOM said. It is unclear how the sites were destroyed or if there were any casualties; CENTCOM did not provide further details and the Houthis have not commented on the attacks. In addition, American forces intercepted and destroyed two unmanned surface vessels and a drone on June 14.

The airlift of the Tutor’s crew came after several attacks on merchant vessels in the waters around Yemen last week. On June 13, the Ukrainian cargo ship Verbena, flying the Palauan flag and operated by a Polish shipping company, was hit by two separate missile attacks. That day, the USS Philippine Sea evacuated an injured civilian from the Verbena. Two days later, the crew announced it was abandoning ship; the crew was rescued by another merchant vessel.

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The Houthis, a religious and nationalist Yemeni group that controls most of the country after a long civil war, began attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in October. The campaign was a response to Israel’s war in Gaza. The Houthis’ leadership said it would continue the attacks until the war ended. Since October, American and later allied ships have repeatedly intercepted drones and missiles, attacked launch and radar sites, and carried out several major bombing raids in Yemen, including on the capital, Sana’a.

Last month, the U.S. military extended the deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group in the Middle East due to ongoing attacks.

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