The United States Navy destroyed an anti-ship missile in Houthi-held territory in Yemen early on Saturday, US Central Command said hours after an oil tanker carrying a cargo of Russian-originated fuel was attacked by the Iran-backed rebel group.
In a statement released early on Saturday, Washington said that it had struck the missile system that was “aimed into the Red Sea” and which it said had posed an “imminent threat” to ships navigating the region.
The strike came just hours after Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on the Marlin Luanda, an oil tanker operated by the Trafigura Group, which told media it had been carrying a cargo of Russian-originated fuel.
“US Central Command Forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Red Sea and which was prepared to launch,” the group, which oversees US strategic operations in the Middle East, said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
“US Forces identified the missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined it presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region,” adding that it “destroyed the missile in self-defense.”
The attack on the Marlin Luanda was the latest in a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Houthi militants in recent weeks. Since November, the rebel group has attacked or seized numerous ships navigating the waterway in what it says is an act of support for Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
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