Washington: The United States is seeing growing indications that Iran-allied Al Houthi rebels, despite denials, were responsible for Sunday’s attack on a US Navy destroyer off the Yemen coast, US officials said.
The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct a missile attack on the warship, said US officials, who are not authorised to speak publicly because the investigation is ongoing.
The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Al Houthi control in Yemen might have also “painted” the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Iran-aligned fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, said the officials.
Neither of the two missiles fired from Al Houthi-controlled territory on Sunday hit the USS Mason or the nearby USS Ponce, an amphibious transport dock. But the incident threatens to trigger the first direct US military action against Al Houthis in Yemen’s conflict, even if it is limited to one-off retaliation.
Al Houthis have publicly denied any role in the strike.
A senior Western diplomat said those denials have been communicated privately as well.
But the emerging details of Sunday’s incident, if confirmed by a US investigation, would lend further support to the Pentagon’s claims that “the facts certainly seem to point” to Al Houthi involvement. The US military even hinted on Tuesday at possible preparations for a retaliatory strike.
“Anybody who takes action, fires against US Navy ships operating in international waters, does so at their own peril,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told a news briefing.
Al Houthis, who drove the Saudi Arabia-backed Yemen President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi from the capital in 2014, had previously avoided targeting US military ships.
Although the United States has provided limited support for the Saudi-led coalition battling Al Houthis, it also has reserved its direct military role in Yemen to the fight against Al Qaida’s affiliate, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
That general US policy might still remain in place, even if it opts to carry out one-off retaliatory strikes.
Yemen’s war has killed at least 10,000 people and brought parts of the country to the brink of starvation.
Al Houthis, who are allied to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north including the capital Sana’a.
The US military has acknowledged that only the first of the two missiles came close enough to even trigger the USS Mason’s defences, and it is still not clear those were necessary to avoid a direct hit on the ship.
It is also not clear whether those defences caused the missile to splash down early, or whether it would have fallen short anyway.
The second missile, fired about an hour later, was far enough away that the USS Mason did not deem it necessary to employ its defences.
But Reuters has learnt that the coastal defence cruise missiles themselves had considerable range, adding to concerns about the kind of heavy weaponry that Al Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which US officials believe is supplied by Iran.
The second missile, for example, travelled more than two dozen nautical miles before splashing into the Red Sea off Yemen’s southern coast, one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Al Houthis had previously acknowledged responsibility for firing on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates a week earlier.
Both incidents took place around the Bab Al Mandab strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Gerry Northwood, chief operations officer with British maritime security firm MAST, suggested Al Houthis would find it increasingly difficult to stage similar strikes going forward.
“Now that the US is getting involved, it will become increasingly difficult for Al Houthis to position their missiles for further attacks,” Northwood said.
