US destroys four Houthi drones attacking US Navy ship

The US Central Command said on Wednesday its forces shot down four drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia from areas under their control, the latest in a barrage of Houthi missiles and drones aimed at international ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis fired four longrange unmanned aerial systems at a US warship in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning, but they were intercepted by US Navy ships and failed to strike their objective, according to a US military statement.

“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said.

The Houthis did not claim responsibility for the strike, but they often take credit hours or days later. Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and remotely controlled boats at international commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, claiming to be acting in support of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Yemeni government authorities, activists and local media said that a prisoner died on Tuesday inside a Houthi detention facility in the central province of Dhamar, only one day after another prisoner died in another Houthi-held jail in Sanaa.

The family of Khaled Hussein Ghazi, who was jailed in a civil dispute in Dhamar city a year ago, received a call from Houthi security officials telling them of his death and requesting that they retrieve his remains.

Abdurrahman Barman, a Yemeni human rights activist and director of the American Center for Justice, told Arab News that a Houthi chief prosecutor ordered Ghazi’s release a year ago, but another Houthi judge refused, leaving him to die inside the central security prison in Dhamar.