Yemen Houthi rebels fire missile at a US warship, escalating conflict

Jerusalem: Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a missile on Friday at a United States warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden, forcing it to shoot down the projectile, and struck a British vessel as their aggressive attacks on maritime traffic continue.

The attack on the US warship, the destroyer USS Carney, marked a further escalation in the biggest confrontation at sea the US Navy has seen in the Middle East in decades, as Houthi missile fire set another commercial vessel ablaze on Friday night.

Early Saturday local time, US forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Red Sea and prepared to launch, the US military’s Central Command said.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah satellite news channel said the strikes happened near the port city of Hodeida, but offered no assessment of their damage.

The Carney attack represents the first time the Houthis directly targeted a US warship since the rebels began their assaults on shipping in October, a US official said on condition of anonymity because no authorisation had been given to discuss the incident.

Later Friday, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Operations, which oversees Mideast waterways, acknowledged a vessel had been struck by a missile and was on fire in the Gulf of Aden.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree did not acknowledge the Carney attack, but claimed the missile attack on the commercial vessel that set it ablaze.

He identified the vessel as the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Marlin Luanda.

Central Command late Friday confirmed the Marlin Luanda was struck by a single anti-ship ballistic missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen.

The Carney and other coalition ships responded and were rendering assistance toward the stricken ship. Central Command said no injuries were reported.

The Houthis’ now direct attacks on US warships are the most aggressive escalation of its campaign in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. The US has tried to temper its descriptions of the Houthis’ strikes, and said it is difficult to determine what exactly the Houthis are

trying to hit in part try to prevent the conflict from becoming a wider regional war.