WASHINGTON, November 13. /TASS/. Houthi rebels from Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement attacked two US missile destroyers during their passage via the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said at a news briefing.
"On November 11, US Central Command forces successfully repelled multiple Iranian-backed Houthi attacks during a transit of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. During the transit, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stockdale and USS Spruance were attacked by at least eight one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles, which were successfully engaged and defeated; the vessels were not damaged, no personnel were hurt," he said.
Earlier, the Houthi movement’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said that the rebels had delivered rocket and drone strikes on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. The Pentagon refuted this information.
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. Subsequently, the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom began to deliver joint strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines, targeting Houthi missile sites, drones and radiolocation systems.