US CENTCOM Announces 'Defeat' of Red Sea Attack

U.S. Navy ships and aircraft shot down 28 drones fired by Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea area, following a large-scale attack by the Iranian-allied group that threatened American vessels, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.

In a statement on Saturday morning, CENTCOM said between 4 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Sanaa time, that U.S. Navy vessels and aircraft, along with coalition ships, shot down 15 one-way attack drones. These had been launched by "Houthi terrorists" and had "presented an imminent threat."

In an update posted later on Saturday, CENTCOM added more details, saying the attacks continued until 8:20 a.m. local time. "Following further engagements through the morning, U.S. and Coalition forces downed a total of at least 28 uncrewed aerial vehicles," the U.S. military said in a statement posted to X. The statement noted that there were no reports of damage.

An attack on Friday by Houthis targeted the Singapore-flagged bulk carrier Propel Fortune, although the U.S. military said that none of the missiles fired hit the vessel and "there were no injuries or damages reported." The Houthis, who have held northern Yemen and the capital of Sanaa since 2014. say their attacks are to pressure Israel to stop the war in Gaza. However, their targets often have little to do with the conflict that was prompted by Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

That attack and the targeting of American warships were "two specific military operations," Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on Saturday in a Telegram post. He reiterated his group's "solid position in support of the Palestinian people."

"The Yemeni armed forces will persist in upholding their military operations in the Red and Arab Seas until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," the post in Arabic said, according to a translation.

During his State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that his military will begin establishing a port in Gaza for shipments of food and medical supplies as he called on Israel to allow more aid into the Hamas-controlled territory.

The holy Muslim month of Ramadan is approaching without a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas; Biden said earlier that this could make the situation in Gaza "very, very dangerous."

"President Biden is trying to thread the needle on the Israel-Hamas debate by developing policies that appeal to both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel wings of his party," Michael Doran, director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., told Newsweek.

"He has avoided the calls of a ceasefire coming from the progressive left. And to the progressive left, he says he's working very hard to get a ceasefire," Doran said.

"The ceasefire that he's working on will be in the context of an exchange of the hostages Hamas took for Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails—a prisoners-for-hostages swap that the Israeli government will accept, so he won't be seen on the pro-Israel side as having forced Israel to do something it doesn't want to do."

Update, 3/9/2024 at 2:35 p.m. ET: Additional details from a CENTCOM update were added.