WASHINGTON (AFP) – An American warship shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired Thursday by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the US military said.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling militant group Hamas.
“The USS Mason (DDG 87) shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, referring to a guided-missile destroyer.
“There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries,” CENTCOM said, adding that it was the 22nd attempted attack on international shipping by the Houthis since mid-October.
The attacks are endangering a transit route that carries up to 12 per cent of global trade, prompting the United States to set up a multinational naval task force earlier this month to protect Red Sea shipping.
In addition to US military action, the Treasury Department unveiled sanctions Thursday against a network involved in financing Houthi attacks.
The Treasury said it had sanctioned the head of the Currency Exchangers Association in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, along with three exchanges in Yemen and Turkey responsible for “facilitating the flow of Iranian financial assistance” to the Houthis.
The Yemeni rebels say they are targeting the apartheid regime and regime-linked vessels to push for a stop to the offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The United States has rushed military aid to the apartheid state, which has carried out a relentless campaign in Gaza that has killed at least 21,320 people, also mostly civilians.
Those deaths have sparked widespread anger in the Middle East and provided an impetus for attacks by armed groups across the region that are opposed to the apartheid regime.
US forces in Iraq and Syria have also repeatedly come under fire from drone and rocket attacks that Washington says are being carried out by Iran-backed armed groups.
On Monday, a drone attack wounded three American personnel in northern Iraq, after which the US military struck three sites it said were used by Iran-backed forces in the country.
