Philippines urges sailors to avoid Red Sea due to Houthi attacks

The Philippines on Friday urged its sailors to "avoid" the Red Sea amid attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the vital waterway.

"Filipino citizens should avoid the entire area unless absolutely necessary for their livelihood," the Foreign Ministry said, noting that "the escalating conflict in the Red Sea poses a clear and present danger to all Filipino seafarers operating in the area."

She added that Filipino seafarers should make a "wise choice" and exercise their "right to refuse to sail" due to the risks.

The warning comes a day after 23 Filipinos and two Russians were rescued from a Greek-flagged oil tanker after it was hit by several projectiles off the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday. The attack on the Sunion tanker caused a fire and engine shutdown.

At dawn today, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced, at dawn on Friday, the destruction of three Houthi drones within 24 hours. CENTCOM stated via the X platform that "during the past 24 hours, US Central Command forces succeeded in destroying two Houthi drones over the Red Sea."

These forces were also able to "destroy a third drone belonging to the group in an area (unnamed) under its control in Yemen." CENTCOM considered that these drones "posed a clear and imminent threat to US forces, coalition forces (Prosperity Guardian), and commercial ships in the region."

Source: Agencies