Washington: The Pentagon declined to say on Monday whether the USS Mason destroyer was targeted by multiple inbound missiles fired from Yemen on Saturday, as initially thought, saying a review was under way to determine what happened.
Any determination that the USS Mason guided-missile destroyer was targeted on Saturday could have military repercussions, since the United States has threatened to retaliate again should its ships come under fire from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Al Houthi fighters.
The United States carried out cruise missile strikes against radar sites in Yemen on Thursday after two confirmed attempts last week to hit the USS Mason with coastal cruise missiles.
“We are still assessing the situation. There are still some aspects to this that we are trying to clarify for ourselves given the threat — the potential threat — to our people,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing.
Admiral John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, disclosed the latest incident during an event in Baltimore on Saturday, saying the USS Mason “once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea.” Cook noted that the crew aboard the USS Mason detected what appeared to be a missile threat and responded appropriately.
US officials cautioned, however, that details from the incident were still under review. It was unclear how soon a final determination might be made about how many, if any, missiles were actually fired at the USS Mason.
The US cruise missiles launched on Thursday knocked out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Al Houthi forces, in Washington’s first direct military action against suspected Al Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.
Since March 2015, Yemen has been gripped by war pitting the Al Houthi group, backed by troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the internationally recognised government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Al Hadi, backed by Saudi Arabia.
The Al Houthi movement has denied firing on the ship. But it did promise to retaliate after a Saudi-led strike on a funeral gathered in Yemen’s Al Houthi-held capital Sana’a last week, killing 140 people according to one UN estimate, and 82 according to the Al Houthis.
The United States has regularly refuelled Saudi jets participating in the Yemen campaign and has sold many of the munitions dropped on Yemeni targets, to name only two examples.
An investigative body set up by the Saudi-led coalition on Saturday blamed a series of factors for the funeral strike, including receiving incorrect information from Yemeni military figures that armed Al Houthi leaders were in the area at the time.
