Vessel attacked by Houthis being towed to Oman port

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A CARGO vessel attacked last week by Yemen’s Houthi rebels is being towed to a port in Oman with the remains of two Filipino seafarers inside, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega made the statement as 11 of the 13 Filipino crew members of the Greek-flagged vessel True Confidence is set to be repatriated to Manila Tuesday night, while two others who were injured were still recuperating from their wounds.

The 13 were earlier brought to Djibouti by an Indian Navy ship that responded to the distress call of True Confidence after it was attacked last Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, killing the two Filipinos and a Vietnamese.

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The vessel was on its way from China to Jeddah and Aqaba, carrying a cargo of steel products and trucks when it was attacked by Houthi rebels about 50 nautical miles southwest of Aden.

De Vega said the two Filipinos still in a Djibouti hospital will return to the country in the next few days.

Seventeen Filipino seafarers are still being held hostage by the Houthi rebels who seized the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader cargo vessel in the Red Sea last year.

The Houthi is part of the so-called “axis of resistance” in the Middle East, supported and armed by Iran to oppose Israel in the region. The group has launched long-range missiles and attack drones on Israel since the Jewish state launched an offensive against Hamas following its October 7 attack.

De Vega said nine Filipino seafarers on the Marshall Island-flagged St. Nikolas oil tanker seized by Iran last January in the Gulf of Oman arrived on Sunday, and two more arriving tomorrow. Last month, Iranian authorities released a Filipino seafarer of St. Nikolas.

With this development, De Vega said, there are only six Filipino crew members of St. Nikolas still in Iran.

De Vega said the nine were released after their manning agency found Russian crew members as replacement.

Iran seized the vessel on January 11 while it was carrying 145,000 tons of oil from Iraq to Turkey. Teheran said it was in retaliation to the “theft” of its oil from the same tanker – which at the time was called the Suez Rajan – last year by the United States.

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