Two ships desperately tried to fight off Houthi attacks – help never arrived

The Iran-backed group carried out its most complex and violent attack yet on Red Sea shipping.

For more than 48 hours, two merchant ships in the Red Sea tried to fight off repeated attacks by Houthi fighters who used rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and drones to sink them both, kill at least three crew members and take others hostage. No US or allied warship was around to help.

An officer at Cosmoship Management, operator of the Eternity C, one of the vessels that was attacked, said he desperately tried to get assistance from the British navy and a European naval task force as the fight unfolded. He said he was told there were no ships in the area.

The attack was the first successful Houthi strike on commercial shipping since November and one of the deadliest since the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group began waging a campaign to disrupt traffic along the crucial global trade route, saying they were acting because of the war in Gaza.

The attacks, each of which involved multiple small boats backed by heavier weaponry, came two months after President Trump struck a ceasefire with the Houthis that he said at the time would stop the group’s attacks on shipping.

As long as the Houthis aren’t shooting at American ships, the US considers the ceasefire still in place, a senior US official said. A Defense Department spokeswoman said the US hasn’t changed its “force posture” in response to the attacks.

Christopher Long, a former British naval officer in the Middle East and now head of intelligence at maritime security firm Neptune P2P, said the lack of military presence near Houthi strongholds in the southern Red Sea means shippers are entirely vulnerable in the most perilous area of the region.

“As we speak today, you are on your own,” he said.

The international effort to protect the sea lanes has grown less robust in recent months, as fewer navies have the capabilities to counter the Houthis’ increasingly sophisticated arsenal, the senior US official said.

The senior US official, a British navy spokeswoman and Aspides, the European Union’s naval mission in the Middle East, all said their navies didn’t have ships nearby.

The Houthis began their assault around midday Sunday, as the Liberian-flagged Magic Seas, two football fields long and loaded with fertiliser and steel, passed near Yemen on its way to Turkey.

According to a report from the Joint Maritime Information Center, an operation run by the US and UK navies to share security information with the shipping industry, the Magic Seas’ security officer made an urgent call: The ship was under attack.

Four or five small boats buzzed around the giant vessel and exchanged gunfire with its security team. One of the attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the bridge.

Within 90 minutes, the assault had grown to seven or eight boats. A missile slammed into the cargo hold and four drone boats joined the attack. The security team opened fire and sank two, but the other two hit the ship and the engine room began filling with water. The crew abandoned ship.

Houthi fighters boarded the Magic Seas, set explosive charges around its hull and sent it to the bottom of the sea, according to a video released by the group that was verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal.

Mahdi al-Mashat, chairman of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, said the group would continue to attack ships linked to Israel until the war in Gaza ends and limits on humanitarian supplies are lifted.

Magic Seas crew abandoned ship before the vessel sank. Picture: UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation / AFP

The Magic Seas and the Eternity C were Greek-owned and Liberian-flagged. The Magic Seas visited Israel in December 2023, according to data providers Windward and Kpler. Another ship controlled by the Eternity C’s operator visited the Israeli port of Haifa in June, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.

If the Houthis are now going to be targeting ships with a once-removed link to Israel, this could affect a sizeable portion of the global fleet, said Ami Daniel, the head of maritime intelligence firm Windward. “This further bifurcates the world shipping system,” he said.

The operators of the ships, Allseas Marine for the Magic Seas and Cosmoship Management for the Eternity C, didn’t respond to requests for comment about links to Israel.

The Houthi attack on the Eternity C began Monday evening just under 5 miles from the point of assault on the Magic Seas and unfolded in much the same way, according to a Joint Maritime Information Center report.

An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea killed three mariners and wounded two others.

The Eternity C was sailing empty to Saudi Arabia when it was circled by multiple small boats armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Over the next two hours, a series of strikes knocked out the ship’s propulsion and severely damaged its engine room.

In an audio recording of the distress call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, an operator can be heard yelling, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, we are under attack” and requesting immediate assistance.

The fight continued into the next day, with the Houthis deploying missiles and drones. A commercial ship made an attempt to help but was blocked by militants who had set up a perimeter around the damaged vessel, the Cosmoship officer and an Aspides spokesman said. The security team ran out of ammunition, and the crew abandoned ship as it started to sink.

Houthi militants take control of the Magic Seas.

Cosmoship lined up a private company to launch a rescue effort Wednesday morning. Ten crew members were recovered from the sea, but 15 remained missing, including at least three crew members who had been killed in the engine room.

The Houthis said they had picked up several of the Eternity C’s crew members. The US Mission to Yemen said the seamen had been kidnapped by the Houthis and called for their safe release.

Maritime security experts and the US said the Houthi attacks were the most violent since the militants started targeting ships in November 2023 to support Hamas in the militant group’s war with Israel in Gaza.

The Houthis had sunk two ships before this week’s attacks and killed three sailors in March 2024, but this week’s sustained attacks stood out for their tactics and toll.

“This is the worst damage they inflicted in the space of 48 hours,” said Ellie Shafik, head of maritime intelligence at British digital solutions company Vanguard Tech. “This is the worst in terms of successful, concentrated attacks.”

The strikes come as mediators are trying to hammer out a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would pause the fighting in Gaza for at least 60 days. Hamas, which triggered the war with its deadly October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, has been battered by 21 months of fighting, with thousands of fighters and most of its leadership killed.

The Eternity C sinks. Some of its crew members were rescued, but 15 are still missing. Picture: Ansarullah Media Centre/ AFP

The Lebanese militia Hezbollah also began firing missiles into Israel after the Gaza war began, but was forced into a ceasefire last fall after an Israeli campaign of covert operations, air strikes and a ground incursion killed its leaders and wiped out most of its arsenal.

Iran, which backed both groups as well as the Houthis, was hobbled by Israel’s recent 12-day air campaign against its military leadership and nuclear program.

Iran denies that it has armed the Houthis. A spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s mission at the United Nations didn’t return a request for comment.

The Houthis continue to launch ballistic missiles at Israel several times a week. Most have been intercepted.

Mohammed Al-Basha, founder of US-based Middle East security advisory company Basha Report, said the Houthi attacks demonstrate that “they possess both the capability and the political will to disrupt, and they are carefully choosing when to act.”

Wall Street Journal