SOFIA (Reuters) – Two Bulgarian sailors and a Romanian crew member returned home after being held for 14 months by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, receiving a warm welcome from their families and officials at Sofia airport on Thursday.
The trio were part of the 25-member international crew of the vessel Galaxy Leader that the Houthis seized off Yemen’s Red Sea coast more than a year ago.
They were released on Wednesday and handed to Oman following the three-day-old ceasefire in Gaza’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV reported.
Captain Lyubomir Chanev and First Officer Danail Veselinov arrived in Sofia aboard a government airplane that was sent to pick them up from Muscat in Oman on the order of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, local media reported.
(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov, writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Hugh Lawson)