JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a missile at a U.S. warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden on Friday, forcing it to fire the projectile and hitting a British ship, as their aggressive attacks on maritime traffic continued.
The attack on the US warship, the destroyer USS Carney, marked a further escalation of the largest maritime confrontation the US Navy has seen in the Middle East in decades, as Houthi missiles torched another merchant ship on Friday evening.
The Carney attack was the first time the Houthis had directly attacked a U.S. warship since the rebels began their attacks on ships in October, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it of the incident.
Later on Friday, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Operations, which monitors Middle East waterways, admitted that a ship in the Gulf of Aden had been hit by a missile and was on fire.
Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree did not acknowledge the Carney attack but claimed the rocket attack on the merchant ship set it on fire. He identified the vessel as the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Marlin Luanda.
A US military official confirmed that the ship was hit by a single anti-ship ballistic missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. The Carney sailed toward the stricken ship to provide assistance but had not yet reached it as of Friday evening.
The Houthis' now direct attacks on US warships are the most aggressive escalation of their campaign in the Red Sea since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. has sought to soften its descriptions of the Houthis' attacks, saying it was difficult to determine exactly what the Houthis were trying to attack, in part to try to prevent the conflict from escalating into a larger regional war.
The United States and its allies had also held back for weeks from attacking Houthi weapons sites in Yemen, but now they are taking regular action, often destroying launch sites that are armed but have not fired and are considered an imminent threat.
Although the Carney was directly attacked, a statement from the US military's Central Command on Friday said the Houthis fired “in the direction” of the Carney.
It is important to recognize Friday's attack as a direct attack on a U.S. warship, said Brad Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
“Now they're finally calling a spade a spade and saying, yes, they're trying to attack our forces, they're trying to kill us,” he said.
While the moderation of language and response was aimed at preventing a larger war, it had the opposite effect of further emboldening the Houthis, Bowman said.
In Friday's attack, an anti-ship ballistic missile approached the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been involved in American operations since November to stop the Houthi campaign, Central Command said.
“The missile was successfully launched from the USS Carney,” it said. “No injuries or damage were reported.”
The attacks were the latest attacks by rebels in their campaign against ships sailing through the Red Sea and surrounding waters, which has disrupted global trade during Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. and Britain have launched several rounds of airstrikes since the Houthi attacks began against Houthi missile depots and launch sites in Yemen, a country wracked by conflict since rebels captured the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea, allegedly in revenge for Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. But they have often targeted ships with weak or no clear ties to Israel, endangering shipping on a key route for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Since the start of the airstrikes campaign, the rebels now say they will also target American and British ships. On Wednesday, two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the U.S. Defense and State Departments were attacked by the Houthis, forcing an escorting U.S. Navy warship to fire some of the projectiles.
The top commander of the U.S. Navy in the Middle East told the AP on Monday that the Houthi attacks were the worst since the so-called tanker war of the 1980s. It culminated in a day-long naval battle between Washington and Tehran in which the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, killing 290 people.
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Copp reported from Washington.