The US military reports shooting down a Houthi drone over the Red Sea and destroying another one inside Yemen, Fox News said.
CENTCOM reports that the Iranian-backed group “launched two unmanned aerial vehicles from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Red Sea” on Saturday morning before its forces “successfully engaged and destroyed one UAV,” while the other is “presumed to have crashed into the Red Sea.”
These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.
The strikes come after the Houthis carried out a suspected attack in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, with explosives detonating near a ship.
Britain’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) military centre said the ship’s crew saw the explosion as it passed the Aden coast.
CENTCOM said on Friday that the Houthis also “fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Red Sea.”
Significantly, though, these launches came a day after Russian state media reported that the Houthis had a new hypersonic missile in their arsenal: “The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8 and runs on solid fuel.”
