US aircraft carrier hit by missiles, Houthis say

SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's armed Houthi group said in a statement on Saturday that it had launched ballistic missiles at the US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the northern Red Sea.

"The missile force in our armed forces carried out an operation targeting the American aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the northern Red Sea with several ballistic and cruise missiles, and the operation achieved its goals successfully," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

However, two US officials told Reuters the Houthi claim is false. "That is incorrect," one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is the second claimed attack by Houthis targeting the Eisenhower in the Red Sea in less than a month. The first attack against the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was on May 31, on which the US military did not comment.

US officials ordered the aircraft carrier to return home after a twice-extended tour.

The Pentagon announced the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt will follow the Eisenhower, heading to Middle East waters once it completes an exercise in the Pacific.

Sarea said that the militant group also attacked the merchant vessel Transworld Navigator in the Arabian Sea with ballistic missiles, as a response to what Houthis called the vessel owner's violation of their entry ban to Israeli ports.

Earlier in the day, fighter jets of the US-British coalition conducted four airstrikes against Houthi targets northwest of Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, according to the Houthi al-Masirah television.

Hours before the coalition airstrikes, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported explosions in the vicinity of a merchant vessel 126 nautical miles east of Yemen's southern port city of Aden. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The Houthi group began in November last year to launch attacks targeting what they said were Israeli-linked ships transiting the Red Sea, to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

In response, the US-British naval coalition stationed in the waters has since January to deter the group, but this has led to an expansion of Houthi attacks to include US and British commercial vessels and naval ships.

Xinhua - Agencies