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Houthi supporters attend a rally in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against US-led airstrikes in Yemen, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, January 26, 2024.
Osama Abdulrahman/AP
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Osama Abdulrahman/AP
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Houthi supporters attend a rally in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against US-led airstrikes in Yemen, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, January 26, 2024.
Osama Abdulrahman/AP
JERUSALEM — Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a missile Friday at a U.S. warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden, shooting down the projectile and striking a British vessel as they continued their aggressive attacks on maritime traffic.
The attack on the US warship, the destroyer USS Carney, escalated on Friday night when a Houthi missile attack set another merchant ship on fire, in the largest maritime confrontation the US Navy has seen in the Middle East in decades.
On Saturday morning local time, U.S. forces struck a Houthi anti-ship missile that was preparing to launch targeting the Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command said.
The Houthis' al-Mashira satellite news channel said the attack took place near the port city of Hodeidah, but did not provide an assessment of the extent of the damage.
The Kani attack was the first time Houthis have directly targeted a U.S. warship since the rebels began attacking ships in October, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. Because I am not authorized to discuss this case.
Late Friday, the UK's maritime operations unit, the British military that oversees Middle East waterways, acknowledged that a ship had caught fire after being hit by a missile in the Gulf of Aden.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. General Yahya Saree did not acknowledge the Carney attack, but claimed the fire was caused by a missile attack on a commercial vessel. He identified the vessel as the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Marlin Luanda.
Central Command confirmed late Friday that the Marlin Luanda was hit by a single anti-ship ballistic missile fired from Houthi rebel-controlled Yemen. Carney and other Allied ships responded and assisted the stricken vessel. Central Command said no injuries were reported.
The current direct Houthis attack on U.S. warships is the most aggressive escalation of operations in the Red Sea since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The United States has sought to tone down its explanation for the Houthis' attacks, saying it is difficult to determine exactly what the Houthis are trying to attack in order to prevent the conflict from spilling over into a wider regional war.
The United States and its allies have also held off on attacking Houthi weapons sites in Yemen for weeks, but are now taking regular action, often destroying launch sites that are armed but unlaunched and seen as an imminent threat.
Even though Carney was directly targeted, Central Command said the Houthis fired “directly at” Carney. The Carney said it had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile.
Brad Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said it was important to acknowledge that Friday's attack was a direct attack on a U.S. warship.
“They are now finally calling a spade a spade and saying, yes, they are trying to attack our troops, they are trying to kill us,” he said.
Softening language and response aimed at preventing a broader war has had the opposite effect of emboldening the Houthis, Bowman said.
The attack was the latest in rebel attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea and surrounding waters, disrupting global trade amid Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The United States and Britain have carried out several airstrikes since Houthi attacks began targeting Houthi missile bases and launch pads in Yemen, which has been suffering from conflict since the Houthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa in 2014.
The rebels say they are avenging Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza by repeatedly targeting ships in the Red Sea since November last year. But they often target ships with weak or unclear links to Israel, endangering ships on key routes for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Since the start of the airstrike campaign, the rebels have said they will now also target American and British ships. On Wednesday, two U.S.-flagged ships carrying cargo for the Pentagon and State Department were attacked by Houthi rebels, with an escorting U.S. Navy warship shooting down some of the projectiles.
The U.S. Navy's top commander in the Middle East told The Associated Press on Monday that the Houthi attacks were the worst since the so-called tanker wars of the 1980s. This culminated in a day-long naval battle between Washington and Tehran, and in 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people.