A United States Navy warship shot down and destroyed an Iranian-made Houthi drone that was launched from Yemen, a military official confirmed.
American officials said that no damage was done to the US Navy destroyer USS Carney and that no injuries were suffered by the US personnel onboard the ship. At the time of the attack, the warship had been sailing near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
US Navy Shoots Down Houthi Drone
In a statement, US Central Command said that while the intentions of the Houthi drone were still unclear, the UAV was traveling towards the warship. It added that at the shoot-down, the USS Carney was escorting the USNS SUPPLY (Oiler) and another US-flagged and -crewed ship carrying military equipment to the region.
The USS Carney was said to have shot down 15 drones and four cruise missiles fired from Yemen in the northern Red Sea last month in nine hours. According to Fox News, the American warship used its SM-2 surface-to-air missiles for the shoot-downs.
Unlike the drone on Wednesday, which was an Iranian-made KAS-04, it did not shoot down the missiles in self-defense as the projectiles were headed toward Eilat in Israel. The attempted drone strike also marks the latest in a string of threats from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
It came a day after another Iranian drone flew within 1,500 yards of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. This happened while the carrier was conducting flight operations in international waters in the Arabian Gulf.
In a statement, the US Naval Forces Central Command commander, Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, said that the previous drone "violated safety precautions." It did not stay more than ten nautical miles away from the American carrier. It also ignored multiple warnings but later turned away.
Another Navy destroyer, the USS Thomas Hudner, earlier this month shot down a drone that was traveling toward it as it sailed in the southern Red Sea. According to Politico, the incident also occurred near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
A Series of Drone Attacks
The USS Hudner also shot down several other attack drones over the Red Sea that were believed to have been launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen last week. A statement from the command read that the ship and its crew sustained no damage or injury.
The Pentagon assessed that the American ship itself was not the target but argued that the drone was close enough to be of concern. American officials said that the attack drone was most likely on its way to Israel.
At the time, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh implied that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen were responsible for the attempted attack. However, she did not give an outright confirmation of the claim.
The official said they were still assessing the attribution but added that there was no reason to doubt that it would have come from the Houthis.
The US has also blamed the rebels for an act of aggression against an American drone earlier this month, noting that they shot the unmanned aircraft as it flew in international airspace off the coast of Yemen on Nov. 8, said ABC News.
