- Two US Navy destroyers came under attack by the Houthis on Monday.
- The Iran-backed rebels fired a mix of anti-ship missiles and exploding drones.
- The US military defeated all the threats, a Pentagon spokesperson said.
The US Navy defeated a complex attack launched by the Houthis on Monday that saw the rebels fire several missiles and drones at two American warships off the coast of Yemen, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The destroyers USS Stockdale and USS Spruance came under fire as they were transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a strategic maritime chokepoint between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Navy repelled multiple Houthi attacks involving at least three anti-ship cruise missiles, five anti-ship ballistic missiles, and eight one-way attack drones, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday.
Ryder said that the attacks were “successfully engaged and defeated. The vessels were not damaged; no personnel were hurt.”
Earlier, the Houthis said they attacked the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea and two unnamed American destroyers in the Red Sea. The Iran-backed rebels said that they achieved their objectives.
Ryder said he was unaware of any attack on the Lincoln.
His announcement came several hours after US Central Command published footage showing fighter jets taking off from the Lincoln to “support operations” against the Houthis. It was not immediately clear if that footage was related to the Monday attack on the destroyers or earlier US military action against the rebels.
Ryder also shared that US forces carried out precision airstrikes against multiple Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen over the weekend. He said the operation involved F-35 stealth aircraft, which were seen in Centcom’s footage.
The attack against the destroyers on Monday marks the latest Houthi attack on Navy warships off the coast of Yemen. In late September, US forces fended off a similarly complex missile and drone assault.
The Navy has routinely intercepted Houthi missiles and drones targeting military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the past year. The rebels have said their actions are in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
Monday’s engagement came against the backdrop of a similar interaction that occurred between American forces and other Iranian groups in Syria over the past few days.
On Sunday, US personnel at Mission Support Site Green Village in northeast Syria came under two separate attacks involving a drone and indirect rocket fire, Ryder said. In response to the attacks, American forces carried out airstrikes the next day against nine targets in two locations linked to Iranian groups.
Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the Centcom commander, said attacks against US and coalition partners in the Middle East “will not be tolerated.”
“We will continue to take every step necessary to protect our personnel and coalition partners and respond to reckless attacks,” he said in a statement on the US airstrikes.
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