Army Spokesman Yahya Saree issued a statement on Saturday, announcing two military operations involving missiles and drones, which he said “successfully achieved their goals” earlier in the day.
The first operation targeted the American ship, “Propel Fortune”, in the Gulf of Aden with a “number of suitable naval missiles”, according to the text of the statement.
The second operation, it said, targeted “a number of American war destroyers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with 37 drones.”
The statement further said that the operations were conducted in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and in retaliation for “the American-British aggression” against Yemen, which is about the ongoing airstrikes that the US and the UK launched in mid-January for what they described as protecting international shipping in the face of Yemeni attacks in the Red and Arab seas.
US Central Command, CENTCOM, confirmed the Saturday “large-scale uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) attack into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden”, but claimed to have “defeated” it with the cooperation of a several-member coalition the US formed in December 2023.
“CENTCOM and coalition forces identified the one-way attack (OWA) UAVs and determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels, U.S. Navy, and coalition ships in the region. US Navy vessels and aircraft along with multiple coalition navy ships and aircraft shot down 15 OWA UAVs”, according to an announcement on X social media platform by CENTCOM, which operates military activities in West Asia, among several regions.
Yemen launched its military operations in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza in mid-November. The country has time and again said that its operations only target Israeli ships or the vessels bound for ports in the occupied territories, to pressure the regime to stop the war in Gaza and lift its siege of the Palestinian territory.
Yemen also says that the US-UK airstrikes on its territory are only aimed at protecting the interests of the Israeli regime, rejecting claims by the two Western states that they protect international shipping.
“The Yemeni armed forces will persist in upholding their military operations in the Red and Arab seas until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted,” the Yemeni army reiterated in its Saturday statement.
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