In this photo provided by the Ministry of Defense on Saturday, December 16, 2023, a view of HMS Diamond off the coast of Scotland, October 4, 2020, is shown. A Royal Navy warship shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea, Britain’s Defense Secretary said on Saturday, December 16, 2023. Grant Shapps said that the HMS Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone , which “targeted merchant ships.” (LPhot Belinda Alker/Department of Defense via AP)
LONDON (AP) — A U.S. warship shot down 14 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, and a Royal Navy destroyer shot down another drone that targeted merchant ships, British and American militaries said.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a series of attacks on ships in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, and fired drones and missiles at Israel as the war between Israel and Hamas threatens to expand.
U.S. Central Command said the destroyer USS Carney “successfully attacked 14 unmanned aerial systems” that launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
The drones “were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reports of injuries,” Central Command tweeted.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said HMS Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone that was “targeting merchant ships.” The night action marks the first time the Royal Navy has shot down an air target in anger since the 1991 Gulf War.
Shapps said attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant vessels in the global trade artery “pose a direct threat to international trade and maritime security.”
“The UK remains committed to deterring these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,” he said in a statement.
HMS Diamond was sent to the region two weeks ago as a deterrent, joining ships from the US, France and other countries.
Global shipping has become a target during the war between Israel and Hamas, which, like the Houthis, is backed by Iran.
Houthi rebels said they fired drones on the port city of Eilat in southern Israel on Saturday. The announcement came hours after Egypt’s state media reported that Egyptian air defenses had shot down a “flying object” off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Dahab.
Earlier this month, three merchant ships were hit in the Red Sea by ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen, and a U.S. warship shot down three drones in the attack, the U.S. military said.
On Friday, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, asked all of its ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea to “suspend their journey until further notice” following a missile attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship.
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Samy Magdy contributed to this report from Cairo.
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