AL-MUKALLA: The US military said it shot down on Wednesday two drones and one ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi militia against a US Navy ship in the Red Sea and destroyed a Houthi missile on Yemeni soil.
This is the latest in a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks against US Navy ships, as well as retaliatory US and UK strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The US Central Command said the US Navy destroyer USS Gravely intercepted one ballistic missile and two drones aimed at it on Tuesday, causing no injury or property damage to the ship or international commercial ships passing through the Red Sea.
CENTCOM forces also destroyed a mobile surface-to-air missile system in an undisclosed Yemeni location controlled by Houthis.
“It was determined these systems presented a threat to US and coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said.
Since January, the US and UK have launched strikes on Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah, and other Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in response to Houthi missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis say that their hundreds of attacks on ships are solely aimed at Israel-linked and Israel-bound ships in an attempt to push Israel to let humanitarian supplies into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
This comes as the Houthis have not claimed responsibility for any new attacks on international shipping routes off Yemen’s coasts since March 26, despite repeated reports from CENTCOM about drones and missiles being destroyed, as well as other notices from UK marine agencies about incidents in the Red Sea.
US military commanders reported a decrease in the number of Houthi strikes on commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea, compared to swarms of drones and missiles fired by the Houthis during the early days of their Red Sea ship campaign, which began in November.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, top US Air Force commander for the Middle East, attributed the slowdown in attacks to the militia exhausting their arsenal of drones and missiles, as well as strikes by the US-led marine coalition that weakened the Houthi military capabilities.
He said the US does not know how many drones and missiles the Houthis still have and is looking into how Iran would resupply weapons to the Houthis. “The challenge for us is understanding what the denominator was at the beginning. We obviously know how much we have struck, and we have assessments of how successful those strikes were,” the US commander said, Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, the US and EU have condemned the Houthis for releasing a new 100-riyal coin currency in areas under their control, warning that the move will exacerbate Yemen’s economic divisions and humanitarian crisis.
The US Embassy in Yemen expressed support for the internationally recognized central bank in Aden’s efforts to stabilize the country’s financial sector, accusing the Houthis of further dividing Yemen’s economy, jeopardizing the integrity of its banking sector, and undermining its commitment to global regulations to combat terrorism funding.
“The United States condemns the issuance by the Houthis — a designated global terrorist group — of counterfeit coins to replace Yemen’s legitimate currency. Counterfeit coins must not be further introduced into the market,” the embassy said on X.
The EU has also expressed concern that the Houthis issuing a new coin would weaken the country’s financial sector and its financial engagements with foreign monetary funds, expressing support for Aden’s central bank and its governor, Ahmed Ghaleb.
“Unilateral decisions that risk deepening the fragmentation of Yemen’s economy, undermine the banking sector and the country’s compliance with international AML-CTF standards do not help the cause of peace or the well-being of Yemenis,” it said in a statement.
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