‘US shoots down 4 drones’
Launched from Houthi-controlled areas
CAIRO (AFP) – The United States shot down four drones headed toward a US destroyer in the southern Red Sea that had been launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Dec. 23, the US Central Command (Centcom) said.
“These attacks represent the 14th and 15th attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi militants since Oct. 17,” it added in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have disrupted world trade for weeks with attacks on ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea in what they said is a response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Iran supports the Houthis but officially denies arming the group, which has seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa after ousting the government and now controls large swathes of the country.
The US Naval Forces Central Command responded to distress calls from two ships under attack, Centcom said.
A Norwegian-flagged, owned and operated tanker reported a near miss of a Houthi drone attack, and a Gabon-owned, Indian-flagged crude oil tanker reported being hit by a one-way attack.
Two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles were also “fired into international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” Centcom said. “No ships reported being impacted by the ballistic missiles.”
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency earlier reported that an uncrewed aerial system had exploded near a vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, 45 nautical miles south-west of Saleef, Yemen. Iran has denied US accusations that it was involved in planning attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.
The repeated denial, issued by Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Dec. 23, came after the
White House said Tehran was “deeply involved” in planning the operations and its intelligence was critical to enable the Houthis to target ships.
“The resistance (Houthis) has its own tools of power and acts according to its decisions and capabilities,” Kani told