DUBAI, January 29. /TASS/. Yemen's Houthi rebel movement Ansar Allah has launched a missile attack on the US Navy ship USS Lewis B. Puller in the Gulf of Aden, the movement's spokesman, Yahya Saria, said.

"The Yemeni Navy on Sunday (January 28 - TASS) fired an anti-ship missile at the USS Lewis B. Puller while it was in the Gulf of Aden," Saria told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.

According to him, the vessel was providing logistical support to US forces involved in strikes against Houthi targets inside Yemen. The movement's spokesman also said that the attack on the USS Lewis B. Puller was "part of military measures aimed at defending Yemen and supporting the oppressed Palestinian people."

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Yemeni rebels (Houthis) warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with the Jewish state to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv stopped its military operation in the embattled Palestinian enclave. Since mid-November 2023, they have attacked dozens of civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

On January 12, UK and US forces using aircraft, ships and submarines first struck Ansar Allah targets in a number of Yemeni cities, including Sana'a and Hodeidah. The targets included missile and drone sites and rebel radar stations. In the early morning hours of January 23, the United Kingdom and the United States carried out a second officially confirmed series of joint strikes, with the main targets being Houthi underground warehouses and facilities related to missile launches and air surveillance.