2023-11-23T05:43:33+00:00
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/ The US Central Command, Centcom, said on Thursday that the aircraft carrier USS Thomas Hudner shot down several unidirectional attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
The command announced in a statement that on the morning of November 23 (Thursday), Yemen time, the drones were shot down while the American warship was patrolling the Red Sea.
The command confirmed that the ship and its crew did not suffer any damage or injuries.
A spokesman for the Yemeni Houthi group said in a post on the X website, earlier, that the Iranian-backed group fired a batch of missiles towards military sites in the Israeli city of Eilat, according to what was reported by Reuters.
Last weekend, the Houthis seized a cargo ship linked to an Israeli businessman due to the war launched by the Hebrew state on Gaza in response to the attack launched by Hamas on Israeli towns on the seventh of last October.
On Sunday, the Houthis announced “the seizure of an Israeli ship and taking it to the Yemeni coast” in solidarity with the Palestinians, stressing that their operations “only threaten the ships of the Israeli entity and those owned by Israelis.”
The Yemeni coast overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is a narrow passage between Yemen and Djibouti at the southernmost tip of the Red Sea. It is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, as about a fifth of global oil consumption passes through it.
The United States said on Tuesday that it was considering the possibility of once again classifying the Yemeni Houthis as a “terrorist organization”, after they seized a cargo ship linked to an Israeli businessman in the Red Sea.