Yemen’s Houthi Militia Took Sailors Hostage After Red Sea Attack, U.S. Says

Yemen’s Houthi militia has taken hostage some of the crew members of a cargo ship they attacked earlier this week, the U.S. Mission to Yemen said on Wednesday on social media. The move is an escalation of a conflict that has already disrupted global shipping.

“We call for their immediate and unconditional safe release,” the Embassy’s statement said.

The Houthi attack on Monday on the Eternity C, a Liberian-flagged vessel that was sailing through the Red Sea, killed at least two of its crew members, according to Liberian officials who spoke to a United Nations meeting on Tuesday.

A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya al-Sarea, said in a statement on Wednesday that the militia had attacked the ship with cruise and ballistic missiles because it was headed to an Israeli port. The Times could not independently confirm the ship’s destination.

Mr. al-Sarea said that after the attack, the group “responded to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care and transport them to a safe location.”

He did not specify how many crew members the Houthis had transported, where they were taken or when they would be released. In 2023, the militia seized a ship called the Galaxy Leader and held its crew hostage for more than a year.

The Houthi statement also did not mention the crew members who were killed.

On Tuesday, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi political official, declined to comment on the attack but told the Times that the group “cares about the safety of sailors.”