The U.S. Pentagon confirmed a Greek-owned oil tanker is still ablaze and may be leaking oil following an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea last week. The tanker, carrying more than 150,000 tonnes, or about one million barrels, of crude oil, was targeted by the Houthis, who have rejected any attempts to salvage the vessel and threatened further attacks. The tanker was first shot at by gunfire from two small boats. Later, it was hit by three unknown projectiles. This caused a fire and made it lose engine power.

A European warship rescued the 25 crew members and took them to Djibouti. However, the Houthis are said to have attacked the tanker again, with a video that seems to show them starting the fire. The U.S. State Department has said it is worried, warning that an oil spill could be up to four times bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989, which let out 257,000 barrels near Alaska's coast.

The Houthis are in control of large swaths of Yemen and are aligned with Iran. They have said the attacks against ships in the Red Sea for the past 10 months were to assist Palestinians in the conflict with Israel-Hamas. They claimed to have sunk two vessels and killed at least two crew members during that period. While they often claim their targets are related to Israel, the U.S., or the UK, these claims tend to be found untrue.

Pentagon spokesman Maj-Gen Patrick Ryder said that two tugs were sent to save the MV Sounion but were threatened by the Houthis. The U.S. is working with local partners to reduce possible environmental harm from the situation.