Yemen: US announces it has struck six Houthi anti-ship missiles

The American response continues in the Red Sea. The United States announced Saturday that it had struck six Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen to “defend freedom of navigation” against rebel attacks on shipping that have increased in recent weeks.

Saturday’s strikes targeted six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles “ready to be launched at ships in the Red Sea,” the US Middle East Command (Centcom) said in a statement.

These missiles were located, according to Centcom, “in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.” US forces have determined they pose an “imminent threat to US Navy ships and commercial shipping in the region,” Centcom said.

“These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer for U.S. Navy and merchant ships,” he also said.

Eight drones destroyed on Friday

Earlier in the day, the United States announced that it had destroyed eight drones off the Yemeni coast and four on the ground on Friday to “defend freedom of navigation” against Houthi rebel attacks on shipping.

Controlling much of Yemen, a country that has been at war for nearly a decade, the Houthis say they are acting in support of the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed and completely besieged by Israel.

Other Iranian-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria are stepping up attacks on American interests in the region, always linked to Israel’s devastating US-backed war since Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil.

US forces have launched a wave of airstrikes against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria in response to an attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan over the weekend.

Washington has vowed more strikes in response to the attack, which occurred near the Syrian and Iraqi borders and left three American soldiers dead. The United States attributed the attack to Iran, which denied it.