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The US navy says it was responding to a large-scale assault by an Iran-aligned group that posed an 'imminent risk'.
United States Navy ships and plane have shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis within the Purple Sea area.
The US navy's Central Command (CENTCOM) mentioned on Saturday that the US-led naval coalition responded to a large-scale assault by “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists” within the Purple Sea and the Gulf of Aden between 4 am and 6:30 am. Was answering. 01:00-03:30 GMT).
The navy mentioned on the X that unmanned aerial automobiles (UAVs) current “an imminent risk to service provider vessels, U.S. Navy and coalition ships within the space.”
“These actions are taken to guard freedom of navigation and make worldwide waters safer.”
US and coalition defeat Houthi assault in Purple Sea area
Between 4 am and 6:30 am (Sanaa time), Iran-backed Houthi militants launched a large unmanned aerial car (UAV) assault within the Purple Sea and the Gulf of Aden. CENTCOM and coalition forces recognized unilateral… pic.twitter.com/PJag5PYUfZ
– US Central Command (@CENTCOM) 9 March 2024
Houthi navy spokesman Yahya Sari mentioned on Saturday that the group had launched two navy operations, the primary of which focused the US bulk provider Propel Fortune within the Gulf of Aden.
Within the second operation, Saari claimed that a number of US navy destroyers within the Purple Sea and the Gulf of Aden have been focused “by 37 drones”.
This week, a Houthi missile assault on a service provider ship within the Gulf of Aden killed at the very least three sailors, the US navy mentioned, after the Yemeni group launched assaults towards delivery in one of many world's busiest sea lanes. The primary dying has been reported. On Israel's warfare on Gaza.
The Houthis claimed duty for the assault on Wednesday, which set hearth to the Liberian-owned, Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence about 50 nautical miles (93 km) off the coast of Yemen's port of Aden.
A US-led naval coalition has been working within the waters since December 2023 to counter Houthi assaults. US forces have additionally struck Houthi weapons websites in Yemen, together with hitting truck-mounted antiship missiles on Thursday.
Regardless of a sequence of airstrikes by US and British forces on Houthi positions, the group, which controls essentially the most populated elements of Yemen, stays in a position to launch important assaults.
These embody final month's assault on the fertilizer-carrying cargo ship Rubymar, which sank on Saturday after drifting for a number of days, and the downing of a US drone value tens of millions of {dollars}.
Houthi fighters in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles towards worldwide business delivery since mid-November, disrupting world commerce on the route that carries about 15 % of the world's delivery site visitors, forcing corporations to hunt closure of the southern port. This has pressured longer and costlier journeys round Africa. ,