Houthi video shows bombs planted on tanker now at risk of Red Sea spill

Houthi video shows bombs planted on tanker now at risk of Red Sea spill

AP says the released footage confirms the rebels boarded and rigged explosives aboard the Sounion.

Body The Houthis on 2024-08-29 released video that appears to show their fighters boarding the Greek-flagged tanker Sounion and planting explosives aboard it, a dramatic escalation in a Red Sea shipping crisis that is already threatening an environmental disaster.

According to the supplied AP report, the vessel had been attacked earlier and abandoned before the Houthis boarded it again. The footage shows masked fighters carrying rifles, moving through the ship and rigging explosives over hatches leading to the tanker’s oil tanks. Multiple blasts are visible in the video. AP says the footage confirmed an earlier agency analysis that the group had planted the bombs itself.

The stakes are high because the Sounion was carrying about 1 million barrels of oil when the Houthis first attacked it on Aug. 21. Any major leak would be a serious ecological problem in the Red Sea, where coral reefs and marine life are already under pressure. Western governments and the U.N. had warned that a spill could be catastrophic. At the same time, the European Union’s naval mission said it had not yet seen evidence of a spill.

The attack also sits within the Houthis’ broader campaign against shipping in response to the Israel-Hamas war. AP says the Sounion attack was among the most serious in weeks and formed part of a pattern that has disrupted trade through the Red Sea and delayed some aid shipments to Sudan and Yemen. That makes the incident more than a single strike on a tanker. It is part of an ongoing effort to use maritime pressure as political leverage.

The crew had already been rescued after the earlier attacks, and the tanker was abandoned before the filmed explosions. That detail matters because it shows the video was not of an initial strike but of a follow-on action against a disabled ship. In other words, the Houthis were not just claiming responsibility; they were showing the mechanics of the attack.

The AP report also included comments from U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who said the U.N. and international partners were working to secure access to the vessel and avert an environmental catastrophe. That response underlines the unusual blend of military and environmental risk attached to the case.

The tanker incident therefore connects three separate crises: the Red Sea shipping war, the Gaza conflict and the possibility of a major oil spill. On 2024-08-29, the released footage made that connection impossible to ignore.