Houthi rebels fire 2 missiles at US Navy destroyer in Persian Gulf
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a U.S. Navy destroyer operating off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea on Sunday -- though neither missile hit the ship, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Though the American warship wasn't struck, the ship was definitely targeted, a U.S. defense official told Fox News. This dramatic escalation comes a week after the U.S. Navy sent warships to the area when a United Arab Emirates flagged auxiliary ship was destroyed off the coast of Yemen by the Houthis.
"We assess the missiles were launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen," Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said. "The United States remains committed to ensuring freedom of navigation everywhere in the world, and we will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of our ships and our servicemembers."
It was not immediately clear how close the missiles came to the destroyer.
In order for this to be the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the rebels would have needed to have been retaliating against a U.S. destroyer that fired first on them. And then two days later, an attack by the rebels on the U.S. destroyer would have needed to have been entirely fabricated by the current administration to Congress and the media.
