Yemen Warns of Environmental Disaster as Oil Tanker Faces Explosion

Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
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Yemen Warns of Environmental Disaster as Oil Tanker Faces Explosion

Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)

The Yemeni government has issued a warning about a looming environmental disaster in the Red Sea, where the Greek oil tanker “Sounion” is at risk of exploding or sinking due to ongoing fires.
The fires started after the Iranian-backed Houthi militants attacked the tanker last Wednesday, as part of their escalating maritime assaults, claiming to support Palestinians in Gaza.
The warning coincides with reports from the European maritime mission (ASPIDES), which noted that the fires on the tanker, carrying around one million barrels of oil, are still burning in an area between Yemen and Eritrea in the southern Red Sea.
ASPIDES announced on Monday via platform X that fires have been burning on the “Sounion” tanker since last Friday, with no signs of an oil spill yet.
The mission also shared images on Sunday showing flames and thick smoke rising from at least five spots on the ship’s deck, including part of its upper structure.
The tanker was attacked by Houthi militants on August 21, causing its engines to fail and leaving it adrift. A French warship from ASPIDES evacuated the 29 crew members, mostly Filipinos, to Djibouti.
Houthi-released footage shows the group boarding the tanker, placing explosives near the tank openings, and detonating them remotely, which ignited the fires. There are concerns that the tanker could sink or explode, leading to a major oil spill.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani warned of the looming environmental disaster after revealing that the attack on Sounion was the ninth such strike on oil tankers in the Red Sea since last November.
The tanker is carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil.
Al-Eryani said the Houthi attacks caused the tanker to drift, disabled its engines, and led to the evacuation of its crew, leaving the vessel at risk of sinking or exploding just 85 nautical miles from Yeman’s Hodeidah port city.
He accused Houthis of “systematic terrorism” that could trigger an unprecedented environmental, economic, and humanitarian crisis.

 



Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025.  (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025.  (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A packed concert hall in Damascus came alive this week with cheers as Wasfi Maasarani, a renowned singer and symbol of the Syrian uprising, performed in celebration of “Syria’s victory."
The concert Wednesday marked Maasarani’s return to Syria after 13 years of exile. While living in Los Angeles, Maasarani had continued to support Syria’s uprising through his music, touring the US and Europe, The Associated Press said.
The concert organized by the Molham Volunteering Team, a humanitarian organization founded by Syrian students, also marked a month since a lightning insurgency toppled former President Bashar Assad.
Revolutionary songs like those by Maasarani and Abdelbasset Sarout — a Syrian singer and activist who died in 2019 — played a key role in rallying Syrians during the nearly 14-year uprising-turned civil war starting in 2011.
Many opponents of Assad's rule, like Maasarani, had fled the country and were unsure if they would ever be able to come back.
In the dimly lit concert hall, the crowd’s phone lights flickered like stars, swaying in unison with the music as the audience sang along, some wiping away tears. The crowd cheered and whistled and many waved the new Syrian flag, the revolutionary flag marked by three stars. A banner held up in the hall read, “It is Syria the Great, not Syria the Assad.”
One of Maasarani's best known songs is “Jabeenak ’Ali w Ma Bintal,” which he first sang in 2012, addressing the Free Syrian Army. It was a coalition of defected Syrian military personnel and civilian fighters formed in 2011 to oppose Assad during the civil war.
“You free soldier, the Syrian eminence appears in his eyes, he refused to fire at his people, he refused the shame of the traitor army, long live you free army, protect my people and the revolutionaries,” the lyrics read.
Another banner in the audience read, “It is the revolution of the people and the people never fail.”
Between performances, Raed Saleh, the head of the civil defense organization known as the White Helmets, addressed the crowd, saying, “With this victory, we should not forget the families who never found their children in the prisons and detention centers.”
Thousands were tortured or disappeared under Assad’s government. After the fall of Assad, the White Helmets helped in the search for the missing.
After the concert, Maasarani told The Associated Press, “It’s like a dream” to return to Syria and perform his revolutionary songs.
“We were always singing them outside of Syria, experiencing the happy and sad moments from afar,” he said, adding that his role was to capture the atrocities on the ground through song, ensuring “they would be remembered in history.” He reflected on his years in exile and recalled surviving two assassination attempts before leaving Syria.
“We have not seen this state without Assad since I was born,” said Alaa Maham, a concert attendee who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. “I cannot describe my feelings, I hope our happiness lasts.”
The future of Syria is still unclear, as the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, now the de facto ruling party, begins to form a new government and rebuild the country's institutions.
Whatever comes next, Maham said, “We got rid of the oppression and corruption with the fall of Assad and his family’s rule."