NEW YORK, January 15. /TASS/. An anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen toward a US destroyer has been shot down, CENTCOM, the US Defense Department’s Central Command, said.

"On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by US fighter aircraft. There were no injuries or damage reported," it said in a statement on the X social media platform (formerly Twitter).

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave.