The United States Navy shot down drones and cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen that officials say were potent...
The United States Navy shot down drones and cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen that officials say were potentially headed toward Israel.
The USS Carney, a destroyer, was sailing in the northern Red Sea when it detected and shot down three cruise missiles and multiple drones that were launched by the Houthis in Yemen. Officials said that the guided-missile destroyer was swarmed by approximately two dozen drones and they did not disclose what munitions were used to shoot down the missiles or drones.
“We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel,” said Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense.
Ryder said that the U.S. Navy’s decision to shoot down the projectiles was part of “the integrated air and missile defense architecture that we built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interest in this important region.”
No one was hurt or killed during the incident.
The Trump administration designated the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under the leadership of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Biden administration quickly reversed the terrorist designation after taking over in 2021.
“These designations will provide additional tools to confront terrorist activity and terrorism by Ansarallah, a deadly Iran-backed militia group in the Gulf region,” Pompeo said in a statement at the time. “The designations are intended to hold Ansarallah accountable for its terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilian populations, infrastructure, and commercial shipping.”
Biden quickly reversed the Trump administration’s terrorist designation on the Houthis just weeks after taking office because he reportedly wanted to “mitigate one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters,” according to the Associated Press.
The Houthis “have received training and military equipment from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the Counter Terrorism Project reported.
The report added that when the Houthis occupied Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, the first thing that they did was free terrorists from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and from Hezbollah.
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