Oil tanker
Oil tankeriStock

An oil tanker's crew has been rescued after an attack in the Red Sea off Yemen but the stricken ship now poses an "environmental hazard", an EU naval mission said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency.

Several projectiles hit the Greek-flagged Sounion off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hudaydah on Wednesday, causing a fire and cutting engine power, according to the UKMTO maritime agency which is run by Britain's Royal Navy.

The attack was claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who said the Sounion "belongs to a company that has ties with the Israeli enemy" and was "accurately and directly hit" with drones and missiles.

The European Union's Aspides mission said it sent a ship to rescue the crew of the vessel, which was carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil.

Later on Thursday, UKMTO said, "The vessel is now at anchor and all crew have been evacuated."

The Sounion, owned by Greek shipping company Delta Tankers, carried a crew of 25 people, including 23 Filipinos and two Russians, according to Greece's ports authority.

The unmanned vessel is now anchored in the Red Sea between Eritrea and Yemen, according to the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC), run by a Western naval coalition.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have upped their attacks in the region since the start of the war in Gaza, having launched drones towards southern Israel and targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea region.

In the wake of the uptick in Houthi attacks, the US formed a coalition, made up of more than 20 countries, aimed at safeguarding commercial traffic in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthis.

In mid-January, with support from other countries, the US and Britain targeted just under 30 Houthi locations with 150 different weapons. They have since carried out several rounds of strikes against Houthi targets.

The Houthis have been unfazed by the strikes, saying that the campaign against the "Zionist enemy" will continue and that the attacks against the American and British ships will not stop.