U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has reported that Houthi terrorists of Yemen, backed by Iran, launched a massive drone and missile barrage at Israel, but the F/A-18 jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier battle group and the guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon annihilated them.
Over a 10-hour period, CENTCOM said that U.S. troops shot down three anti-ship ballistic missiles, 12 attack drones, and two land assault cruise missiles launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea.
The statement claimed no ship damage or injuries. CENTCOM did not say whether Houthi drones and missiles targeted US Navy assets.
The Houthi rebels launched an attack on a container ship in Israel’s port of Eilat and other areas in Palestine, aiming to target Israel.
The ship, MSC United VIII, was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan when the Houthi ordered it to change course. The Houthi attacked with at least two suicide drones. The USS Laboon shot down four Houthi drones.
Houthi drones attacked two commercial boats, and the USS Laboon reacted to the distress calls. A Houthi suicide drone struck one of the ships, the India-flagged M/V Saibaba, but fortunately, no one was hurt. These attacks represent the fourteenth and fifteenth assaults on commercial vessels by the Houthi since the terrorist Hamas atrocity on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to a report, The jihadist group, the Houthis, refers to themselves as Ansar Allah (Army of Allah). In February of 2021, President Joe Biden removed Ansar Allah’s terrorist group designation.
The terrorists will keep attacking and harassing ships in the Red Sea until they are punished, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
Taleblu explained that this is the result when punishment as a deterrent is abandoned. The number of assaults on Israel will increase, not decrease, and the freedom of commerce in the Red Sea will be reduced. The Islamic Republic of Iran was the source of the Houthis’ anti-ship missiles.