U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) said on Monday that claims of a successful missile attack on an American cargo ship by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen were “patently false.”
The Houthis claimed they struck an American cargo ship called MV Ocean Jazz with a missile as it was passing through the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis did not say how much damage they thought their missile caused to the ship.
“The Yemeni armed forces continue to retaliate to any American or British aggression against our country by targeting all sources of threat in the Red and Arab Sea,” a Houthi spokesman said.
This photograph provided by the Indian Navy shows the U.S.-owned ship Genco Picardy that came under attack on January 17, 2024, from a bomb-carrying drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden. (Indian Navy via AP)
NAVCENT said it “maintained constant communications with MV Ocean Jazz throughout its safe transit,” and the ship reported no attack or damage.
MV Ocean Jazz is a heavy-lift cargo carrier operated by a global transportation and logistics company called U.S. Ocean LLC. The company and the ship have transported cargo for the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) in the past, along with humanitarian aid and commercial cargo.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that its mission to “protect shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden” will continue.
“We are going to continue to respond, as we do not seek an escalation,” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.
“It is really up to the Houthis, to these [Iranian] backed militias to stop their attacks on our forces, on commercial shipping, on innocent mariners that are transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” Singh said.
The U.S. and the United Kingdom responded to ongoing Houthi attacks on Tuesday by launching an “additional round of proportionate and necessary strikes against eight Houthi targets in Yemen,” as the Pentagon stated.
In this handout image provided by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, RAF Typhoon and Voyager aircraft return to RAF Akrotiri after carrying out air strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen on January 23, 2024, in Akrotiri, Cyprus. (MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” the Pentagon said.
