A U.S. Navy destroyer got here below assault in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Pentagon stated, in what might sign one other escalation in the tit-for-tat assaults between the American navy and Iranian-backed militants.
A Pentagon official stated the U.S.S. Carney, together with a number of industrial ships close by, got here below hearth for a number of hours starting round 10 a.m. Sunday. The destroyer intercepted no less than one drone throughout the assault, in response to the official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed to debate the matter publicly. Another official stated that there have been no accidents onboard the destroyer and that the ship was not broken.
The officers didn’t say the place the assaults originated. But since Hamas’s Oct. 7 incursion into Israel, the Iran-backed Houthi militia primarily based in Yemen has launched a collection of assaults — together with with drones and missiles — on Israeli and American targets in the Red Sea.
A Houthi navy spokesman, Yahya Sarea, stated in a press release on Sunday that the militia had focused two Israeli ships in the space of the Bab al-Mandeb strait off southern Yemen, however didn’t point out the American naval vessel. The group fired a missile at one ship and focused a second with a drone, he stated, including that the Houthis would proceed to forestall Israeli ships from crusing in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea till Israel’s navy “stops its aggression” in Gaza.
In October, the Carney shot down three cruise missiles and a number of other drones launched from Yemen that the Pentagon stated may need been headed towards Israel.
After Hamas attacked Israel, the Biden administration rushed two plane carriers and extra troops to the japanese Mediterranean close to Israel to discourage Iran and its proxies in the area from increasing the warfare.
Sunday’s assault underscored the dangers that the struggle in Gaza might spiral right into a wider battle. For greater than a month, Iranian-backed militias have carried out drone and rocket assaults towards the 2,500 American troops primarily based in Iraq and the 900 troops in Syria.
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting.
