Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class John Lopez stands watch aboard the USS Spruance on Aug. 15, 2024. (Joey Sitter/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — Two Navy destroyers near the Red Sea fended off more than a dozen drones and missiles launched at the ships Monday by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Pentagon officials said.
The USS Stockdale and USS Spruance were attacked by at least eight drones and eight missiles while transiting the Bab el Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The strait is between Yemen and the Horn of Africa and ships move roughly $1 trillion in goods through it in a year.
The one-way attack drones and anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles were “successfully repelled,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday.
No service members were injured and neither destroyer was damaged, he said.
“[U.S. Central Command] forces retain the inherent right of self-defense, and as I highlighted earlier, will take appropriate steps to protect our personnel,” Ryder said.
Earlier Tuesday, Houthi militants claimed on social media to have attacked both destroyers, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The Pentagon denies the Lincoln was attacked.
“Based on the information I have, it was not attacked — contrary to some of the allegations, should I say, by the Houthis,” Ryder said.
The attacks were carried out about two days after the U.S. struck multiple Houthi facilities in Yemen used to store weapons. The weapons housed at the sites, Ryder said, were used to target military and civilian ships navigating international waters in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The operation, conducted Saturday and Sunday, involved Air Force and Navy assets, including F-35C fighter jets. On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, shared a video of an F-35C jet taking off from the Lincoln in support of an attack against the Houthis.
The Stockdale and the Spruance are part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.
The Lincoln and its strike group deployed July 11 from its homeport of Naval Base San Diego for what was intended to be a Pacific tour, but the carrier’s strike group was directed to the Middle East in late August. The group is expected to leave the region in the coming months.
