The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) arrives in Rota, Spain, Dec. 8, 2023. On Tuesday, Dec., 26, 2023, the USS Laboon and American fighter jets shot down 12 drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land-attack cruise missiles in the southern Red Sea that were fired by the Yemen-based Houthis over a 10-hour period. (Elexia Morelos/U.S. Navy)
U.S. forces in the Middle East shot down a barrage of enemy weapons Tuesday off the coast of Yemen during a sustained attack that lasted for several hours, officials said.
Americans stationed in the region have seen an uptick in insurgent attacks over the last several weeks, which started not long after the militant group Hamas launched a surprise assault on Israel in October. So far, none of the attacks on U.S. bases have caused any American deaths or serious property damage to the bases.
On Tuesday, U.S. fighter jets and a warship shot down an onslaught of missiles and attack drones in the southern Red Sea over a 10-hour period, military officials said. The downed weapons included a dozen one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land attack cruise missiles.
“U.S. assets, to include the USS Laboon and F/A-18 Super Hornets from the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, shot [them] down,” said U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon’s top combatant command in the Middle East. “There was no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries.”
It wasn’t clear exactly what the drones and missiles were targeting, but U.S. forces in the region have carried out a number of “self-defense strikes” and shot down other drones and rockets in recent months.
Officials said the attacks Tuesday were launched by Houthi rebels, Iranian-aligned militants that have been fighting with the Yemeni government since 2014. The western coast of Yemen borders the Red Sea.
Houthi rebels have also been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which is a vital trade route in the area.
Tuesday’s confrontation came one day after a militant attack in northern Iraq injured three American service members, one critically. In response, President Joe Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against the Iranian-aligned Kataib Hezbollah group in at least three locations in Iraq before dawn on Tuesday.
Attacks by Iranian-backed militant groups began sOct. 17, the date that a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds.
Iranian-backed militias have carried out more than 100 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two months ago.
