U.S. Central Command stated that the U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane “successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden,” on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
“The destroyers were escorting three U.S. owned, operated, flagged merchant vessels, and the reckless attacks resulted in no injuries and no damage to any vessels, civilian or U.S. naval,” CENTCOM said. “The destroyers successfully engaged and defeated three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems and one anti-ship cruise missile, ensuring the safety of the ships and their personnel, as well as civilian vessels and their crews.”
The naval actions “reflect the ongoing commitment of CENTCOM forces to protect U.S. personnel, regional partners and international shipping, against attacks by Iran-backed Houthis,” the Pentagon said.
“Notice the language,” wrote Michael Doran, senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute. “The U.S. Navy defeated weapons that attacked it. But the Navy defeated neither the Houthis pulling the trigger nor the Iranians standing behind them.”
“Iran has never been weaker. It’s a puffer fish,” added Doran, a former senior director in the White House National Security Council and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense under the George W. Bush administration. “There’s no reason why the U.S. must tolerate these attacks.”
AIPAC was among the organizations that responded on social media to the CENTCOM statement.
“Iran’s terrorist proxies continue to attack U.S. Navy ships and American commercial vessels,” it stated.
“Periodic reminder that as part of appeasing the Iranian regime, the Biden admin ceded global freedom of navigation to Iranian terror groups,” wrote Omri Ceren, legislative director to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
“Meanwhile, they’re firing off missile defense interceptors designed to protect U.S. assets in a major war, which will take decades to replace,” Ceren added.
Bryan Leib, founder and CEO of a PR firm in Hollywood, Fla., and a former Republican congressional candidate, wrote that Washington should relist the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization.
“Then freeze all their finances, then launch tomahawks on every single Houthi site from U.S. Navy destroyers, so the Houthi terrorists cease to exist,” he wrote. “Long overdue.”
