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U.S. Central Command forces struck a Houthi anti-ship missile prepared to launch and aimed at the Gulf of Aden on Saturday.
In a statement on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the U.S. Central Command said its preemptive strike "will make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels."
The incident - the latest amid growing tensions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that have disrupted global trade and raised fears of supply bottlenecks - took place in the early hours of Saturday local time, the U.S. Central Command said.
It is the U.S. military's seventh strike against Houthi missile launchers in a week. The White House says the strikes are necessary to protect merchant ships and U.S. Navy vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the United States launched three strikes Friday to destroy "Houthi missile launchers that were ready to launch attacks."
Attacks show solidarity, say Houthis
Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia on ships in and around the Red Sea for the past several weeks have bogged down trade between Asia and Europe and created fears of a widening war in the Middle East.
The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza under attack from Israel.
U.S. defense officials say the Houthis have carried out at least 31 attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, 2023.
Major shipping companies have responded by rerouting vessels on the longer and more expensive route around Africa. The Red Sea route is a vital shipping link between Europe and Asia, carrying about 15% of the world's maritime traffic.
But a senior official of the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group said Friday that Chinese and Russian vessels will have safe passage through the Red Sea.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political leadership, said in an interview with the Russian outlet Izvestia that the shipping lanes around Yemen are safe to ships from China and Russia, as long as vessels are not connected with Israel, Agence France-Presse reported Friday, citing Izvestia.
Commanders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC, and Lebanon's Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters.
Tehran has funneled money, training and advanced drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles to the Houthis, who started targeting commercial vessels in November in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the sources said according to Reuters.
IRGC commanders and advisers also are providing technological know-how, data and intelligence support to determine which of the dozens of vessels traveling through the Red Sea each day are destined for Israel and constitute Houthi targets, all the sources said.
Washington also noted last month that Iran was deeply involved in planning operations against shipping in the Red Sea and that its intelligence was critical to enable the Houthis to target ships.
Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Foundation of Defense of Democracies' Center on Military and Political Power, criticized the U.S. administration's approach to the Houthi attacks, saying that knocking out existing missiles in Yemen without a comprehensive effort to counter Iranian weapons is "like cleaning up puddles in your home while ignoring the leak in the roof."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani has repeatedly denied Tehran is involved in the Red Sea attacks by the Houthis. The IRGC public relations office did not respond to requests for comment.
US forces attacked
In addition to the dozens of Houthi attacks on international shipping lanes, there have been more than 140 attacks by Iranian-backed proxies against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 Hamas terror attack, triggering fears of a widening war in the region.
Missile attacks in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen on Saturday exacerbated the crisis.
Iran said five of its Revolutionary Guards commanders were killed in a missile strike on a house in Damascus that it blamed on Israel, and security sources in Lebanon said an Israeli strike there killed a member of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israel has not commented on the Syria attack.
Later Saturday,an American official said a missile or rocket attack had injured U.S. personnel at a base in Iraq, where Iran-backed groups have previously battled U.S. forces.
Some information in this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.