US warship shoots down drone, missile fired by Yemen's Huthis

According to the US Navy, an American warship shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on Thursday.

The Huthis have routinely targeted vessels in the important Red Sea trade corridor, claiming to be acting in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is fighting the terrorist group Hamas.

“The USS Mason (DDG 87) shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Huthis,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, referring to a guided-missile destroyer.

“There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries,” CENTCOM said, adding that it was the 22nd attempted attack on international shipping by the Huthis since mid-October.

The assaults jeopardise a transit corridor that transports up to 12 per cent of global commerce, forcing the US to form a multinational naval task force to safeguard Red Sea shipping earlier this month.

In addition to military action, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against a network implicated in financing Huthi strikes on Thursday.

The Treasury said it sanctioned the chairman of Yemen’s Currency Exchangers Association in Sanaa, as well as three exchanges in Yemen and Turkey, for “facilitating the flow of Iranian financial assistance” to the Huthis.

The Yemeni rebels say they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels to push for a stop to the offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The latest round of the Israel-Hamas conflict began when the Palestinian militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Following the attack, the United States rushed military aid to Israel, which has carried out a relentless campaign in Gaza that has killed at least 21,320 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Those deaths have sparked widespread anger in the Middle East and provided an impetus for attacks by armed groups across the region that are opposed to Israel.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have also repeatedly come under fire from drone and rocket attacks that Washington says are being carried out by Iran-backed armed groups.

On Monday, a drone attack wounded three American personnel in northern Iraq, after which the US military struck three sites it said were used by Iran-backed forces in the country.