SANAA, Yemen: Yemen’s Houthi announced Sunday that it targeted a US destroyer and three supply ships belonging to the US military with 16 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as a drone in a joint military operation in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree in a statement identified the supply ships as the Stena Impeccable, Maersk Saratoga and Liberty Grace,” without specifying the name of the destroyer, reports Anadolu Ajansi.
The operation achieved “precise and direct hits,” he added.
Saree vowed that the group’s forces “will continue to carry out their military operations with escalating intensity in the declared maritime operational zone against Israeli and American enemies and will not stop unless the aggression ends and the siege on Gaza is lifted.”
Regional tensions have escalated due to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 44,400 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 105,200 since October last year.
The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
On Nov. 21, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
Associated Press reports that the US Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi militants at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported.
US Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified.
The Houthis claimed the attack in a statement and said they had targeted the US destroyers and “three supply ships belonging to the American army in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Houthi attacks for months have targeted shipping through a waterway where $1 trillion in goods pass annually over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon. A ceasefire was announced in the latter last week.
The USS Stockdale was involved in a similar attack on Nov. 12.
