Houthi rebels for the primary time fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) at a U.S. F-16 fighter jet on Feb. 19, three senior U.S. protection officers inform Fox Information.
The jet was flying off the coast of Yemen over the Purple Sea when the SAM was fired. The missile didn’t strike the jet.
Houthis fired one other SAM at an American MQ-9 Reaper drone that the U.S. was flying over Yemen outdoors Houthi-controlled areas on Feb. 19.
That is the primary time the Houthis have fired a SAM missile at an American F16 fighter jet, a major escalation within the ongoing navy interactions between the Iranian-backed group and the U.S. Navy and Air Power, in response to senior U.S. protection officers.Â
Houthi supporters march to mark the anniversary of Yemeni unity in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday, Might 22, 2024. (AP Photograph/Osamah Abdulrahman)
US NAVY SHIPS REPEL ATTACK FROM HOUTHIS IN GULF OF ADEN
Underneath the Biden administration the U.S. navy defended its warships patrolling the Purple Sea and Bab al Mandab Strait, escorting and stopping assaults on industrial ships by the Houthis following the Oct. 7, 2023, assault in Israel by Hamas.
The Houthi assaults started shortly after the Israeli navy responded to Oct. 7 in Gaza. U.S. Central Command then escalated its assaults on the Houthis to degrade infrastructure and weapons-storage amenities.Â
Now there’s a coverage debate on the highest ranges of the U.S. navy about what’s the easiest way to counter the Houthis, which the Trump administration has put again on the State Division’s terror listing.
The controversy now’s whether or not to hold out a extra conventional counterterrorism method to the Houthis, with persistent strikes concentrating on the people planning and finishing up the continuing assaults, or whether or not to take a extra defensive method and maintain going after Houthi infrastructure and weapons-storage amenities.
President Donald Trump; Houthi fighters driving navy autos. (Getty Photos)
DISAPPROVAL MOUNTS BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD AS US AVOIDS DIRECT ACTION AGAINST HOUTHI REBELS
A counterterrorism method can be a major – and, some say, costly – escalation at a time when navy sources, together with MQ-9 Reaper drones, are being diverted to the southern border.
The coverage resolution will finally need to be determined by the White Home.Â
Senior navy leaders consider that it might be solely a matter of time earlier than a Houthi missile hits a U.S. Navy vessel, which might trigger devastating accidents and injury to the plane carriers and destroyers which have been patrolling the Purple Sea since shortly after the Oct. 7 assaults.
This can be a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. A doable assault by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday focused a ship additional away from almost all the earlier assaults they’ve launched within the Gulf of Aden, officers mentioned, doubtlessly a part of a widening escalation by the group. (AP Photograph)
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Up to now, the Navy has shot down or intercepted all the missiles and drones fired at their warships by the Houthis, however typically the interceptions have occurred seconds earlier than influence.
There have been quite a few shut calls, and the U.S. Navy in essence has been at struggle within the Purple Sea for the previous two years, dealing with near-constant assaults by Houthi ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, and firing costly SM-2 and SM-3 missiles to counter the Houthi harassment.
