CENTCOM claims downed cruise missile fired from Yemen at US warship

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Jan 2024 05:32

The US military says US fighter aircraft shot down the missile and there were no injuries or damage reported.

In this April 29, 2015, US Navy handout photo, the guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) arrives in Souda Bay, Greece on April 29, 2015, for a scheduled port visit. (US Navy/AFP)

The US military claimed Sunday that its forces shot down a cruise missile fired at an American destroyer warship from areas in Yemen.

"On January 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time) an anti-ship cruise missile fired from Iranian-backed Huthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea," the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by… pic.twitter.com/jftZHQhA2e
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 15, 2024

US fighter aircraft shot down the missile and there were no injuries or damage reported, according to CENTCOM.

This is not the first time the American destroyer has been involved in military action against Yemeni forces. On December 23, 2023, while stationed in the Red Sea, USS Laboon intercepted and downed four Yemeni unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) that were heading toward the Israeli occupation entity.

The announcement comes shortly after the Sanaa-based Yemeni news agency SABA reported that an American-British aggression targeted Jabal Jida in the al-Luhayyah District in the coastal province of Hodeidah, western Yemen.

The aggression marks the third consecutive attack carried out by the United States and the United Kingdom since Friday dawn, with strikes targeting the capital Sanaa, Taiz, al-Hajja, and Hodeidah.

Commenting on the earlier aggressions, the Yemeni Supreme Political Council of the Sanaa government declared that now "all American and British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni Armed Forces."

The leader of the Ansar Allah movement, Sayyed Abdul Malik al-Houthi, earlier warned that "any American aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered," underlining that Sanaa is "ready for any confrontation with Washington."