The Pentagon sharply refuted an Associated Press story Monday that the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was entering Yemeni waters to intercept an Iranian ship.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its escort, the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and components of an Amphibious Readiness Group led by the USS Iwo Jima are in the area as a result of the military operations in Yemen, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Monday, but there was no intercept.
The vessels in the area also include two of the Iwo Jima’s amphibious readiness group’s vessels, Arleigh Burke destroyers USS New York, USS Forrest Sherman and USS Winston Churchill; the dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry; the mine countermeasures USS Dextrous and USS Sentry and three military sealift command ships.
The vessels are there as a show of force “to increase our presence as a result of the current instability in Yemen,” said Navy spokeswoman Lt. JG Kara Yingling.
The ships are scattered throughout the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab-el-Mandeb strait between the western tip of Yemen and the eastern tip of Djibouti, and the southern portion of the Red Sea, Yingling said. The ships will conduct maritime security operations “to ensure vital shipping lanes remain safe and open,” Yingling said.
