The Greek-flagged ship Sounion has been on fire since Aug. 23 after an attack by Yemen’s Houthis with no obvious signs of an oil spill, EU Red Sea naval mission Aspides said in a post on X on Monday.
The EU mission published photos dated Sunday showing fire and smoke coming out of the vessel’s main deck.
Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said on Thursday that they attacked the Sounion oil tanker in the Red Sea. The Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Fires were observed on at least five locations on the main deck of the vessel, Aspides said. Additionally, part of the superstructure is on fire too.
Satellite image captured by European Space Agency’s Copernicus Satellite 2 showed smoke visible at sea in the vicinity where Sounion was last detected.
Reuters was able to locate the image from matching the last location for MV Sounion seen from LSEG ship tracker.
Aspides said on Thursday that the oil tanker carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil poses an environmental hazard.
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Greek-flagged ship on fire since August 23 after Houthi attack, EU naval mission says
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Greek-flagged ship on fire since August 23 after Houthi attack, EU naval mission says
- Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said on Thursday that they attacked the Sounion in the Red Sea
- The Greek-flagged tanker carries 150,000 tonnes of crude oil which poses an environmental hazard
Libya’s Red Castle museum opens for first time since fall of Qaddafi
Libya’s national museum, formerly known as As-Saraya Al-Hamra or the Red Castle, has reopened in Tripoli, allowing the public access to some of the country’s finest historical treasures for the first time since the revolt that toppled Muammar Qaddafi.
The museum, Libya’s largest, was closed in 2011 during a NATO-backed uprising against longtime ruler Qaddafi, who appeared on the castle’s ramparts to deliver a fiery speech.
Renovations were started in March 2023 by the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), which came to power in 2021 in a UN-backed political process.
“The reopening of the National Museum is not just a cultural moment but a live testimony that Libya is building its institutions,” GNU Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbiebah said at a reopening ceremony on Friday.
Built in the 1980s, the museum’s 10,000 square meters of gallery space features mosaics and murals, sculptures, coins, and artefacts dating back to prehistoric times and stretching through Libya’s Roman, Greek and Islamic periods.
The collection also includes millennia-old mummies from the ancient settlements of Uan Muhuggiag in Libya’s deep south, and Jaghbub near its eastern border with Egypt.
“The current program focuses on enabling schools to visit the museum during this period, until it is officially opened to the public at the beginning of the year,” museum director Fatima Abdullah Ahmed told Reuters.
Libya has since recovered 21 artefacts that were smuggled out of the country after Qaddafi’s fall, notably from France, Switzerland, and the United States, the chairman of the board of directors of the antiquities department Mohamed Farj Shakshoki told Reuters ahead of the opening.
Shakshoki said that talks are ongoing to recover more than two dozen artefacts from Spain and others from Austria.
In 2022, Libya received nine artefacts, including funerary stone heads, urns and pottery from the US
Libya houses five UNESCO World Heritage sites, which it said in 2016 were all endangered due to instability and conflict.
In July, Libya’s delegation to UNESCO said the ancient city of Ghadames, one of the sites, had been removed from the list as the security situation had improved.
The museum, Libya’s largest, was closed in 2011 during a NATO-backed uprising against longtime ruler Qaddafi, who appeared on the castle’s ramparts to deliver a fiery speech.
Renovations were started in March 2023 by the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), which came to power in 2021 in a UN-backed political process.
“The reopening of the National Museum is not just a cultural moment but a live testimony that Libya is building its institutions,” GNU Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbiebah said at a reopening ceremony on Friday.
Built in the 1980s, the museum’s 10,000 square meters of gallery space features mosaics and murals, sculptures, coins, and artefacts dating back to prehistoric times and stretching through Libya’s Roman, Greek and Islamic periods.
The collection also includes millennia-old mummies from the ancient settlements of Uan Muhuggiag in Libya’s deep south, and Jaghbub near its eastern border with Egypt.
“The current program focuses on enabling schools to visit the museum during this period, until it is officially opened to the public at the beginning of the year,” museum director Fatima Abdullah Ahmed told Reuters.
Libya has since recovered 21 artefacts that were smuggled out of the country after Qaddafi’s fall, notably from France, Switzerland, and the United States, the chairman of the board of directors of the antiquities department Mohamed Farj Shakshoki told Reuters ahead of the opening.
Shakshoki said that talks are ongoing to recover more than two dozen artefacts from Spain and others from Austria.
In 2022, Libya received nine artefacts, including funerary stone heads, urns and pottery from the US
Libya houses five UNESCO World Heritage sites, which it said in 2016 were all endangered due to instability and conflict.
In July, Libya’s delegation to UNESCO said the ancient city of Ghadames, one of the sites, had been removed from the list as the security situation had improved.
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