Oil tanker attacked by Houthi rebels burning in Red Sea salvaged, says security firm

An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea after being attacked by Houthi rebels in Yemen and threatening a massive oil spill has been salvaged, a security firm has said.

The MV Sounion tanker carrying one million barrels of crude oil had been a disaster-in-waiting in the key waterway after being struck and later sabotaged with explosives by the Houthis as part of their solidarity campaign with Hamas over the war in Gaza.

It took months for salvagers to tow the Sounion away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil.

"Over three challenging weeks, the fires were extinguished, cargo tanks patched and pressurised with inert gas, and the vessel declared safe," said private security firm Ambrey, which helped lead the response alongside a European naval force and salvagers.

"In early October, she was towed north to Suez for removal of her cargo, which has now been successfully completed."

The US State Department had warned that a spill from the Sounion would have been "four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster" in 1989 off Alaska.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital Sanaa for over a decade and have been battling a Saudi-led coalition backing the country's exiled government.

The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged tanker on 21 August with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat.

A French destroyer operating as part of the European Union's Operation Aspides rescued its crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.

The Houthis later released footage showing they planted explosives on board the vessel and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the