Yemen Houthi rebels fire missile at warship, escalating worst Middle East sea conflict in decades

Houthi supporters attend a rally in Sanaa, Yemen on Friday in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against US-led airstrikes on Yemen. Photo / AP

Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a missile at a US warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden, forcing it to shoot down the projectile, the US military said.

The attack on the destroyer USS Carney marked a further escalation in the biggest confrontation at sea the US Navy has seen in the Middle East in decades, as Houthi missile fire set another commercial vessel ablaze on Friday night local time.

The Carney attack represents the first time the Houthis directly targeted a US warship since the rebels began their assaults on shipping in October, a US official said on condition of anonymity because no authorisation had been given to discuss the incident.

That contradicted a statement by the US military’s Central Command, which said the Houthis fired “toward” the Carney. As it has in previous strikes, the Pentagon said it was difficult to determine what exactly the Houthis were trying to hit.

Ever since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the US has tried to temper its descriptions of the strikes targeting its bases and warships to try to prevent the conflict from becoming a wider regional war.

Acknowledging the assault as a direct attack on a US warship is important, said Brad Bowman, a senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

This photograph provided by the Indian Navy shows US-owned ship Genco Picardy, which came under attack from a bomb-carrying drone launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden. Photo / AP

“They’re now finally calling a spade a spade, and saying that, yeah, they’re trying to attack our forces, they’re trying to kill us,” he said.

Tempering the language, while aimed at preventing a wider war, has had the opposite effect of further enabling the Houthis, he said.

In the attack, an anti-ship ballistic missile came near the USS Carney, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer that’s been involved in American operations to try and stop the Houthi campaign since November, Central Command said.

“The missile was successfully shot down by USS Carney,” it said. “There were no injuries or damage reported.”

The attack was the latest assault by the rebels in their campaign against ships travelling through the Red Sea and surrounding waters, which has disrupted global trade amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree did not acknowledge the Carney attack but claimed a missile attack on a commercial vessel that set it ablaze. He identified the vessel as the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Marlin Luanda. The Associated Press could not immediately reach the ship’s British managers.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Operations, which oversees Middle East waterways, acknowledged a vessel had been struck by a missile and was on fire in the Gulf of Aden. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone had been hurt.

Houthi supporters attend a rally in Sanaa, Yemen on Friday in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against the US-led airstrikes on Yemen. Photo / AP

The US and Britain have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes since the Houthi attacks began, targeting Houthi missile depots and launcher sites in Yemen, a country that’s been wracked by conflict since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea, saying they were avenging Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperilling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Since the airstrike campaign began, the rebels now say they’ll target American and British ships as well. On Wednesday, two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the US Defence and State departments came under attack by the Houthis, forcing an escorting US Navy warship to shoot some of the projectiles down.

The US Navy’s top Middle East commander told the AP on Monday the Houthi attacks were the worst since the so-called Tanker War of the 1980s. It culminated in a one-day naval battle between Washington and Tehran, and also saw the US Navy accidentally shoot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing 290 people in 1988.