U.S. Navy Warship Shoots Down Drones Fired From Yemen Rebel Zone

(Bloomberg News/TNS) — A U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea shot down several drones launched from Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels pledged to keep targeting Israel until its military offensive in the Gaza Strip ends.

The “multiple one-way attack drones” were launched from areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday night in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The destroyer, the Thomas Hudner, shot down another drone on Nov. 15 that had been “heading in the direction of the ship,” Central Command said at the time.

The episode is the latest involving U.S. forces and militants in the Middle East since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed.

The Yemen Shiite rebels launched winged missiles at various military targets in the south of Israel, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a post on X. The Houthis will continue carrying out their military operations against Israel until its offensive in Gaza ends, Saree said.

The Houthis are a clan from Yemen’s northwest whose uprising against the government in 2014 triggered a civil war. The Biden administration removed the terrorist designation for the Houthis as part of an American effort to end their war with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

The U.S. has been reviewing whether to restore the group to its list of terrorist organizations after rebels seized a ship Sunday. President Joe Biden has been under pressure to do so, including from some allies in the Middle East and members of Congress.