DUBAI, May 15. /TASS/. Houthi rebels from the Yemen-based Ansar Allah movement have delivered a missile strike on the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason in the Red Sea, the movement’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"Yemen’s naval forces have conducted a combat operation delivering a strike with several anti-ship missiles on the US destroyer Mason in the Red Sea," Saree told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.

Additionally, according to the spokesman, in the Red Sea, the Houthis attacked the commercial vessel Destiny en route to the port of Eilat in Israel. Saree insisted that the Houthis registered direct strikes on both ships.

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. Since last November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response, the US and its allies launched Operation Prosperity Guardian aiming to ensure both the freedom of navigation and the safety of maritime traffic in the Red Sea. Overnight on January 12, the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom delivered joint strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines. Houthi missile sites, drones and radiolocation systems were targeted.