Yemen’s Houthis release mariners held since July ship attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday released mariners held since a July attack on the ship Eternity C in the Red Sea, an assault that killed at least four on board and sank the vessel.

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who have been targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war, said via their al-Masirah satellite news channel that Oman had taken custody of the mariners, who were flying to the sultanate.

Oman did not immediately acknowledge the release. However, a Royal Oman Air Force jet landed earlier Wednesday in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital held for over a decade by the rebels, according to flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press. Following the Houthi announcement, the plane was tracked leaving Yemeni airspace.

The Philippines on Tuesday said it expected nine Filipino mariners held by the Houthis since the attack to be released. The Foreign Ministry in Manila described the mariners as being “held hostage by the Houthis” since the attack.

The Houthis offered no immediate breakdown on the nationalities of those released. It had described their forces as rescuing the men after they abandoned the crippled ship following the attack.

Al-Masirah on Wednesday published an image of six of the men, without expressions, wearing the black-and-white checkered keffiyeh scarf often associated with the Palestinians.

The attack on the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier also left 11 people missing.

The Houthis have targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones in their campaign, sinking four vessels. The attacks have killed at least nine mariners, after a crew member aboard one vessel targeted, the Minervagracht, died of his wounds in October.

The Houthis have held mariners for months in the past, and it wasn’t immediately clear why they released the mariners now.

The Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief, earlier ceasefire in the war in Gaza. They later became the target of a weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The current ceasefire in the war has again seen the Houthis hold their fire.

Meanwhile, the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program is in question after Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June that saw the U.S. bomb three Iranian atomic sites.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.