SANAA, Jun 23 (NNN-SABA) – Yemen’s Houthis said in a statement yesterday that, it had launched ballistic missiles at the U.S. aircraft carrier, Eisenhower, in the northern Red Sea.
“The missile force in our armed forces carried out an operation targeting the American aircraft carrier, Eisenhower, in the northern Red Sea, with several ballistic and cruise missiles, and the operation achieved its goals successfully,” Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement, aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
However, there is currently no evidence to confirm that the aircraft carrier was indeed attacked.
This is the second claimed attack by the Houthis, targeting the U.S. aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, in less than a month. The first attack against the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was on May 31, in which the U.S. military didn’t comment.
Sarea said that, the Houthis also attacked the merchant vessel, TRANSWORLD NAVIGATOR, in the Arabian Sea with ballistic missiles, as a response to what Houthis called the vessel owner’s violation of their entry ban to Israeli ports.
The statement threatened more such strikes “until the (Zionist) aggression stops, and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
Earlier in the day, fighter jets of the U.S.-British coalition conducted four airstrikes against Houthi targets, north-west of Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, according to al-Masirah television.
Hours before the coalition airstrikes, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported explosions in the vicinity of a merchant vessel, 126 nautical miles east of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, began in Nov last year, to launch anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones, targeting what they said were Israeli-linked ships, transiting the Red Sea, to show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.– NNN-SABA
