A US warship shot down a drone that appeared to have been fired from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen on Wednesday morning local time, a US defense official said, adding that the unmanned aerial vehicle was “headed in the direction of the ship” and shot down in self-defense.
At the time of the shoot down, the USS Mason — an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer — was “responding to reports that a commercial oil tanker was under attack from suspected Houthi forces.” The suspected Houthi attack on a commercial tanker on Wednesday is separate from the attack earlier this week, when the Mason also responded to an anti-ship cruise missile attack on the M/V Strinda, a Norwegian-flagged tanker. The cruise missile on Monday was also launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
It’s unclear what commercial vessel came under attack on Wednesday. The official said they were not aware of any injuries or damage to the vessels after Wednesday’s attack.
The Mason also shot down a drone last week amid an uptick in attacks in the area.
The US and its allies have started exploring expanding an existing maritime taskforce in the Red Sea as attacks on commercial tankers from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen have become increasingly regular.
CNN previously reported that officials primarily see attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis as opportunistic in taking advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, rather than a strategic effort by Tehran to expand the conflict.
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that the actions from the Houthi forces “are destabilizing, they’re dangerous, clearly a flagrant violation of international law and so this is an international problem that requires an international solution.”
“The only other thing I’d say on that, as we’ve demonstrated in the…
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