Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted two US destroyers with drones and missiles as they passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, but the warships repelled the attacks.
The Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in November 2023, a region-wide fallout from Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, which groups in several countries have cited as justification for the attacks. .
“The US warships were attacked with at least eight one-way attack uncrewed air systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles, all of which were successfully launched,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. Was shot down.”
“There was no damage to the ships, no injuries to any personnel,” Ryder said of Monday’s attacks.
He said the Houthis’ claim that they also attacked the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is not true.
Ryder declined to reveal the carrier’s location, saying, “Based on the information I have, contrary to some allegations, it was not attacked by the Houthis.”
Yemeni rebels say their attacks – a significant international security challenge that threaten a key shipping lane – are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Anger over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the small coastal region, which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, has fueled violence linked to Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The United States and other countries have deployed military vessels to help protect shipping from Houthi attacks, but attacks directly targeting American warships are relatively rare.
Washington’s forces have launched sustained airstrikes against the Houthis to reduce their ability to target shipping and try to seize weapons before they reach the rebels, but their attacks continue.
Ryder said Tuesday that the U.S. military carried out several airstrikes over the weekend against Houthi weapons storage facilities.
“These facilities housed a variety of advanced conventional weapons that were used by the Iran-backed Houthis to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters,” he said. This included assets of both the US Air Force and Navy, he said.
The US military also targeted Iran-backed groups in Syria on Monday in response to drone and rocket attacks on US troops in that country the previous day.
There were no American casualties in the attacks, according to Ryder, who said he did not have information to provide on whether there were workers killed or injured in subsequent American attacks.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
