A Pentagon official says an attack on a Saudi frigate off the coast of Yemen Monday demonstrates the desire of Houthi rebels to disrupt shipping and possibly target U.S. ships in the narrow waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
In the attack, two small boats laden with explosives rammed the Saudi warship, causing an explosion that ripped a hole in the ship’s hull, killing three Saudi sailors.
While one U.S. defense official said the Iranian-backed Houthi suicide bombers appeared to know they were attacking a Saudi-flagged vessel, another Pentagon official says a video recorded by rebels seemed to give the impression the attackers might have thought the ship was a U.S. Navy vessel.
In the video, a voice shouts in Arabic, “Death to America, death to Israel, death to the Jews.”
“Someone might reasonably infer from the fact they yelled “Death to America” that they may have thought they had attacked a U.S. ship,” said the second official
The U.S. Navy drills constantly to protect against the threat of suicide bombers on small boats, as well as missile attacks
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The Monday incident took place in the same part of the Southern Red Sea where rebels fired a shore-launched missile at the USS Mason, a U.S. Navy destroyer, in October.
In response, the U.S. destroyed radars and shore defenses in Yemen with a volley of ship-launched cruise missiles.
