by Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Iranian-backed Houthi forces used drones and missiles to attack two US destroyers that were sailing through a strait between Yemen and Djibouti, the Pentagon says.
“The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stockdale and USS Spruance were attacked by at least eight one-way attack unscrewed aerial systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles which were successfully engaged and defeated,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
Ryder said the ships were not damaged and there were no casualties. The attack happened on Monday.
The Bab-el-Mandeb is a “strategic route for oil and natural gas shipments” via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, according to the US Energy Information Administration. At one point, the giant energy firm BP halted all oil shipments through the Red Sea because of Houthi attacks on shipping.
Earlier, the Navy and the US Air Force carried out what the Pentagon called a series of precise airstrikes against Houthi weapons storage facilities located in Yemen. F-35C fighter planes were used in the attacks.
“These facilities housed a variety of conventional weapons used…to target US and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” Ryder told reporters.
For almost a decade, the US has backed Saudi Arabia in its war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Years of tensions boiled over into civil war in 2014 when Houthi forces seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and demanded a new government. The Saudis responded with a military intervention to restore to country’s leadership.
That led to Houthis using missiles and drones to attack the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, along with shipping in the region. Since Israel and Hamas went to war last year, the Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel.
As the Biden administration prepared to take office four years ago, it said that ending the war in Yemen was a top priority. According to a Yemeni think tank, the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, that led to “years of miscalculation.” A recent essay on the organization’s website notes that “major military action is out of the question”, and that the only viable option is a political one involving “an inclusive power-sharing agreement by all effective Yemeni actors.”
Meanwhile, US Central Command said it conducted strikes against nine targets in Syria linked with Iranian groups. That came after two attacks against US personnel based in northeast Syria. There were no American casualties.
