U.S. warships sailing in international waters in the Red Sea, may have have been targeted by anti-ship cruise missiles Saturday, and took defensive actions as a precaution.
A U.S. defense official tells the Washington Examiner that the ships detected “possible inbound missile threats” and “deployed appropriate defensive measures.”
The official says all U.S. ships are safe and that a “post-event assessment, is underway.”
If an attack is confirmed, it would be the third this month on U.S. ships operating off the coat of Yemen, and would likely result in another retaliatory strike against coastal radar and missiles sites along the Yemeni coast.
On Thursday the destroyer USS Nitze fired several Tomahawk cruise missiles to knock out radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels to send a message that attacks against U.S. ships would not be tolerated.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said any further aggressive action against U.S. ships would result in another military response.
