He added that the U.S. military was working with other partners in the region to determine how to help the vessel and mitigate potential environmental impact.
The Iran-aligned group has sunk two ships and killed at least three crew members in their 10-month campaign, which has upended global ocean shipping by forcing vessel owners to avoid the Suez Canal shortcut.
The Houthis said they attacked the tanker in part because Delta Tankers violated its ban on “entry to the ports of occupied Palestine,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree had said in a televised speech.
The Sounion was the third vessel operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers to be attacked in the Red Sea this month. The attack caused a fire onboard, which the crew extinguished, Delta Tankers said in a statement.
The largest recorded ship-source spill was in 1979, when about 287,000 metric tons of oil escaped from the Atlantic Empress after it collided with another crude carrier in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Tobago during a storm, according to International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation.
