US destroyer shoots down missile launched by Houthi rebels

A US destroyer shot down drones and a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels toward it in the Red Sea, officials said Wednesday, as the Indian navy released images of it fighting a fire aboard a container ship earlier targeted by the Houthis. The assault Tuesday apparently targeted the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been involved in the American campaign against the rebels, who have launched attacks over Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Another suspected Houthi attack on shipping was reported Wednesday. Meanwhile, Iran announced Wednesday it would confiscate a USD 50 million cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. aboard a tanker it seized nearly a year earlier. It marks the latest twist in a years long shadow war playing out in the Mideast’s waterways even before the Houthi attacks began. The Houthi attack on the Carney on Tuesday involved bomb-carrying drones and one anti-ship ballistic missile, the US military’s Central Command said. The US later launched an airstrike destroying three anti-ship missiles and three bomb-carrying drone boats, the Central Command said. Brig Gen Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, acknowledged the attack, but claimed its forces targeted two American warships, without elaborating. The Houthis “will not stop until the aggression is stopped and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted,” Saree said.