Houthi Drones Have Unsuccessfully Targeted Two US Warships

Approximately $1 trillion in goods pass through the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb yearly (Wikimedia Commons).

Yemen’s Houthi rebels unsuccessfully attacked the USS Spruance and the USS Stockdale, two Navy destroyers, as they were passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on November 10. The attacks are the first of their kind after several weeks of calm during which U.S. ships detected no incoming Houthi missiles or drones. 

The Houthi movement is a Shia Islamist organization whose slogan calls for the destruction of America and Israel. It took control of the Yemeni government in 2014, precipitating military intervention by Saudi Arabia that has fueled an ongoing civil war. Like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis are part of an Iran-backed network embroiled in a struggle for influence in the Middle East. 

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War in October 2023, the Houthis have been targeting commercial vessels in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which some one trillion dollars of trade goods passes annually, according to the Associated Press (AP). In the last year, the AP reports, the Houthis have attacked over 90 vessels, killing four sailors and sinking two ships while collecting some $180 million in illegal safe-passage fees. Although intended to pressure the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel to end the war in Gaza, many of the vessels they targeted lacked any obvious connection to the conflict, Al Jazeera reports. 

According to the BBC, the United States and a coalition of twelve other countries responded to the attacks by initiating Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect Red Sea shipping routes. Moreover, Houthi weapons storage sites have recently been subject to a number of American airstrikes. 

Along with the USS Spruance and the USS Stockdale, a British commercial ship near the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah also reported an attack. A report by Yemen’s state-controlled television network indicated that the latest round of airstrikes had also targeted a third vessel in the Arabian Sea, per the BBC. Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Defense denies claims put forward by Houthi spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree that the organization had also bombarded the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, states the AP. 

As Military.com notes, in the time since the last attack in September—during which the Spruance and Stockdale came under fire—American vessels had not encountered any Houthi missiles. The recent turn of events marks a worrying reversal of this trend.