CENTCOM said in a statement early Monday that US fighter jets had shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired from Yemen at the USS Laboon operating in the southern Red Sea.
The missile was downed close to Yemen’s western port of al-Hudaydah on Sunday afternoon, with no report of injuries or damage, according to CENTCOM, which is responsible for US military activities in the West Asia region.
The incident happened as tensions run high following joint US-UK bombings of Yemen in the past few days which the two have justified as a response to the Arab country’s operations against Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.
Late on Sunday, Yemeni media reported fresh strikes by Washington and London, saying that the attacks hit areas in the western province of al-Hudaydah.
Yemen has described as “criminal aggression” the strikes which began on Friday (Jan. 12) and left five Yemeni armed forces killed that day. The same day, the Yemeni army issued a statement, saying that the aggression would not go unpunished.
Since mid-November, Yemen has been attacking Israeli vessels or those bound for ports in the occupied Palestine in a bid to exert pressure on the regime to stop its bloodshed against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Yemen has rejected claims by the US and its allies that its operations threaten international shipping, and said that it would continue its anti-Israel attacks until the genocide of Palestinians ends.
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