DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) 鈥 Yemen's Houthi rebels fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the United States and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major naval engagement, authorities said Wednesday. No damage was immediately reported.
The attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis came despite a later Wednesday to potentially condemn and demand an immediate halt to the attacks by the rebels, who say their assaults are in the Gaza Strip.
However, their targets increasingly have little 鈥 or no 鈥 connection to Israel and linking Asia and the Middle East with Europe. That raises the risk of a U.S. retaliatory strike on Yemen that could upend an uneasy cease-fire that has held in the Arab world's poorest country.
The assault happened off the Yemeni port cities of Hodeida and Mokha, according to the private intelligence firm Ambrey. In the Hodeida attack, Ambrey said ships described over radio seeing missiles and drones, with U.S.-allied warships in the area urging 鈥渧essels to proceed at maximum speed.鈥
Off Mokha, ships saw missiles fired, a drone in the air and small vessels trailing them, Ambrey said early Wednesday. The British military鈥檚 United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations also acknowledged the attack off Hodeida.
The U.S. military鈥檚 Central Command said the 鈥渃omplex attack鈥 launched by the Houthis included bomb-carrying drones, anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile.
It said 18 drones, two cruise missiles and the anti-ship missile were downed by F-18s from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as by American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers the USS Gravely, the USS Laboon and the USS Mason, as well as the United Kingdom's HMS Diamond.
鈥淭his is the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19,鈥 Central Command said. 鈥淭here were no injuries or damage reported.鈥
鈥淰essels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," the UKTMO added.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the gravity of the Houthi threat to global commerce, and renewed U.S. warnings of a response.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going to telegraph or preview anything that that might happen,鈥 Blinken said in Bahrain, the latest stop in a Mideast tour seeking to calm the region. 鈥淎ll I can tell you again, we鈥檝e made clear - we鈥檝e been clear with more than 20 other countries - that if this continues, as it did yesterday, there will be consequences. And I鈥檓 going to leave it at that.鈥
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps described the assault as 鈥渢he largest attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea to date," saying the Diamond used Sea Viper missiles and guns to shoot down multiple drones.
鈥淭he U.K. alongside allies have previously made clear that these illegal attacks are completely unacceptable and if continued the Houthis will bear the consequences," Shapps said in a statement. 鈥淲e will take the action needed to protect innocent lives and the global economy.鈥
The Houthis, a Shiite group that has held Yemen's capital of Sanaa since 2014, later claimed responsibility for the attack in a televised statement by rebel spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree. Saree claimed the attack 鈥渢argeted an American ship that was providing support to the Zionist entity,鈥 without offering any further information. He also described it as an 鈥渋nitial response鈥 to American troops sinking last week.
The Houthis will 鈥渃ontinue to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine from navigating in the Red Sea until the aggression stops and the siege on our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip ends,鈥 Saree said.
The Houthis say their attacks aim to end the pounding Israeli air-and-ground offensive targeting the Gaza Strip . However, the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.
The Red Sea links the Mideast and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal, and its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it and an estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually.
A before the U.N. Security Council, obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press, says the Houthi attacks impede global commerce 鈥渁nd undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security.鈥 The resolution would demand the immediate release of the first ship the Houthis attacked, the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company that the rebels .
An initial draft of the resolution would have recognized 鈥渢he right of member states, in accordance with international law, to take appropriate measures to defend their merchant and naval vessels.鈥
The final draft is weaker, eliminating any U.N. recognition of a country鈥檚 right to defend its ships. Instead, it would affirm that the navigational rights and freedoms of merchant and commercial vessels must be respected, and take note 鈥渙f the right of member states, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms.鈥
A U.S-led coalition of nations has been patrolling the Red Sea to try and prevent the attacks. There's been no broad retaliatory strike yet, despite warnings from the U.S. However, Tuesday's attack appeared to be testing what response, if any, would come from Washington.
Meanwhile, a separate, tentative cease-fire between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen鈥檚 exiled government . This has raised concerns that any wider conflict in the sea 鈥 or a potential reprisal strike from Western forces 鈥 could reignite those tensions in Yemen. It also may draw in Iran, which has so far largely avoided directly entering the wider , further into the conflict.
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Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
