US navy says it was responding to a large-scale assault by the Iran-aligned group that posed an ‘imminent menace’.
United States Navy ships and plane have shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis within the Pink Sea space.
The US navy’s Central Command (CENTCOM) mentioned on Saturday that the US-led naval coalition was responding to a large-scale assault by “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists” launched into the Pink Sea and Gulf of Aden between 4am and 6:30am (01:00-03:30 GMT).
The uncrewed aerial autos (UAVs) offered “an imminent menace to service provider vessels, US Navy and coalition ships within the area,” the navy mentioned on X.
“These actions are taken to guard freedom of navigation and make worldwide waters safer and safer.”
US and Coalition Defeat Houthi Assault in Pink Sea Space
Between 4 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists performed a large-scale uncrewed aerial automobile (UAV) assault into the Pink Sea and Gulf of Aden. CENTCOM and coalition forces recognized the one-way… pic.twitter.com/PJag5PYUfZ
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 9, 2024
The Houthi’s navy spokesperson, Yahya Saree, mentioned on Saturday that the group had carried out two navy operations, the primary of which focused US bulk provider Propel Fortune within the Gulf of Aden.
Within the second operation, Saree claimed that a number of US navy destroyers within the Pink Sea and the Gulf of Aden have been focused “by 37 drones”.
This week, not less than three seafarers have been killed in a Houthi missile assault on a service provider ship within the Gulf of Aden, the US navy mentioned, marking the primary deaths reported because the Yemeni group started assaults towards delivery in one of many world’s busiest sea lanes over Israel’s battle on Gaza.
The Houthis claimed duty for the assault on Wednesday, which set the Liberian-owned, Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence ablaze roughly 50 nautical miles (93km) off the coast of Yemen’s port of Aden.
A US-led naval coalition has been working within the waters since December 2023 attempting to counter the Houthi assaults. US forces have additionally carried out strikes on what they are saying are Houthi weapons websites in Yemen, together with hitting truck-mounted antiship missiles on Thursday.
Regardless of a sequence of air raids by US and British forces on Houthi targets, the group that controls essentially the most populous elements of Yemen has remained able to launching vital assaults.
These have included final month’s strike on a cargo ship carrying fertiliser, the Rubymar, which sank on Saturday after drifting for a number of days, and the downing of a US drone value tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
Houthi fighters in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles towards worldwide business delivery since mid-November, disrupting international commerce alongside a route that accounts for about 15 % of the world’s delivery visitors, forcing corporations to reroute to longer and costlier journeys round Southern Africa.
