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U.S. Destroyer Targeted In Failed Missile Attack From Yemem
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Topic Started: Oct 9 2016, 11:53 PM (28 Views)
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Webster
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Oct 9 2016, 11:53 PM
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Reuters: U.S. Navy ship targeted in failed missile attack from Yemen
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A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer was targeted on Sunday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters, saying the two missiles failed to hit the ship.
"USS Mason detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period while in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.
"There were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship," he said.
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Webster
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Oct 13 2016, 12:29 AM
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Reuters: U.S. Military Strikes Yemeni Targets Following Failed Missile Attack

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The U.S. military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces, retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials said.
The strikes, authorized by President Barack Obama, represent Washington's first direct military action against Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen's conflict.
Still, the Pentagon appeared to stress the defensive nature of the strikes, which were aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason since Sunday.
"These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4 a.m. local (0100 GMT).
"These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea," including the USS Mason, one of the officials said, adding the sites were in remote areas where the risk of civilian casualties was low.
The official identified the areas in Yemen where the radar were targeted as: near Ras Isa, north of Mukha and near Khoka.
The missile attacks on the USS Mason - the latest of which took place earlier on Wednesday - appeared to be the Houthis' response to a suspected Saudi-led strike on mourners gathered in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
Michael Knights, an expert on Yemen's conflict at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suggested the Houthis, fighters from a Shi'ite sect, could be becoming more militarily aligned with groups such as Lebanon's Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.
"Targeting U.S. warships is a sign that the Houthis have decided to join the axis of resistance that currently includes Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran," Knight said.
The missile incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
The Pentagon warned against any future attacks. "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate," Cook said.
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Webster
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Oct 14 2016, 12:38 AM
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CNN: Yemeni Strikes Risk U.S.-Iran Confrontation
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Washington (CNN)Hours after the US struck three radar installations in Yemen in response to attempted attacks on a US Navy destroyer, Pentagon officials made clear they'll hit back again if needed and Iran moved its own warships into nearby waters.
"We want to make crystal clear if you threaten our forces, if you threaten our ships, we'll respond," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday. He described the missile launches against the USS Mason as "a response to direct threats to our people, to our ships and we responded to that threat and we'll respond again."
Also Thursday, the Iranian navy deployed two warships into the Gulf of Aden in order to protect commercial vessels against pirates, according to the Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian news service with close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"With regard to the Iranian navy activities, I'll leave it to the Iranians to describe the disposition of those ships," Cook said. "We operate in those waters all the time."
The destroyer USS Nitze blasted radar sites along the Red Sea coast with Tomahawk cruise missiles after attempted attacks on the Mason attributed to Iran-backed Houthi rebels engaged in Yemen's civil war.
Pentagon officials said initial assessments indicated the Tomahawk strikes destroyed all three targets, but the exchange of fire underscored the risks of US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, which the White House is now reviewing.
In the meantime, the war is fueling anti-American sentiment in the region, deepening considerable strains in the US-Saudi relationship and raising the risk of unintended flare-ups with Tehran.
"The war in Yemen is escalating and becoming more dangerous," said Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution.
With its strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea, extensive border with Saudi Arabia and desperately poor population, Yemen is "a military and civil strategic nightmare," according to Anthony Cordesman, a former state and defense department official at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A deadly mix of forces are competing within its borders, including small cells of ISIS fighters, separatist groups, tribal factions, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Houthi rebels backed by Iran, forces linked to the former government and groups allied with Yemen's internationally recognized and Saudi-backed exiled leader.
The danger in Yemen is growing at a time when Congress has reduced US leverage with Saudi Arabia by passing legislation allowing US citizens to sue the kingdom for damages related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Congress is also increasingly resistant to arms sales to Gulf nations, Riedel notes.
Referring to the Democratic and Republican candidates for president, Riedel added that "whether Clinton or Trump wins in November, they will inherit a damaged relationship in January." -Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/yemen-us-strike-iran-houthis/
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Webster
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Oct 16 2016, 12:08 AM
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NBC News: U.S. Destroyer Fired On For Second Time In One Week
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The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason was fired on again in international waters off the coast of Yemen, but the ship deployed countermeasures and the vessel was not struck, two U.S. officials said.
The incident occurred late Saturday or early Sunday local time. At least one missile was fired, the officials said.
"The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen," Navy Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations, told reporters at an event in Baltimore Saturday.
The destroyer was targeted by missiles fired from rebel-controlled areas in Yemen twice earlier this week, prompting the U.S. military to launch cruise missiles that destroyed three radar sites in response.
After the earlier attempted missile attacks this week, a Defense Department official warned that those who fire on U.S. vessels do so at their peril.
Yemen is embroiled in a two-year-long conflict between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. More than 4,000 civilians have been killed since the conflict escalated in March 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday.
The U.S. strike against radar installations in Yemen were carried out by the USS Nitze at around 4 a.m. Thursday local time and involved Tomahawk cruise missiles, the military said.
"They have everything that they need to defend themselves from these attacks and respond when needed," Richardson said of the ships.
The missiles were fired on the USS Mason this week as it was in the area of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, officials said.
After the U.S. strikes in Yemen, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement: "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world."
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