The US Navy says it shot down three drones over the Gulf of Aden. They were destroyed by the warship “Carney”. In addition, a Houthi drone ground station was bombed in Yemen.
US forces say they shot down three drones over the Gulf of Aden and destroyed ten drones belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. The US regional command Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, wrote on X that the Iranian-made drones were shot down by the US destroyer “Carney” on Wednesday evening at 9:10 p.m.
The drones were “near” the warship. The US military did not provide any information about what kind of drones were involved. The unmanned aircraft can be used for both attacks and reconnaissance.
Drone ground station attacked in Yemen
Hours later, the regional command said on The ground station and the drones were classified as an “imminent threat to merchant ships and US Navy ships in the region” and were therefore bombed in “self-defense”. The deployment will make international merchant shipping “safer”.
Before the three drones were shot down, the “Carney” had intercepted an anti-ship missile from the Houthi rebels, according to the US regional command. The militia fired the rocket in the direction of the Gulf of Aden.
Houthis repeatedly attack merchant ships
Since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, the Houthis have repeatedly targeted merchant ships on the Red Sea. The militia declared its solidarity with Hamas. One of the most important shipping routes for world trade runs along Yemen, through which freighters from the Indian Ocean reach the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. In response to the attacks, the United States and Britain repeatedly attacked Houthi positions in Yemen.
The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7th with an unprecedented major attack by Hamas on Israel. Since then, there have been fears that the conflict could spread – most recently after the deaths of three US soldiers at a military base in Jordan in a nighttime drone strike last weekend. The White House on Wednesday blamed the Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance group in Iraq for the attack.