The Navy destroyer Gravely shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen toward the Red Sea on Tuesday night, according to U.S. Central Command.
No injuries or damage were reported, CENTCOM said in a brief statement.
The intercept comes just days after a drone attack on Tower 22, a U.S. outpost in Jordan, killed three soldiers and injured dozens more.
Navy warships have shot down dozens of attack drones and missiles in the Middle East since October.
Gravely’s intercept also came on the same day that the Iran-backed militant group Kataib Hezbollah issued a statement directing its fighters to halt attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
The statement from the group, first reported by Reuters, came within hours of President Joe Biden telling reporters Tuesday that he had decided on a response to Sunday’s fatal drone attack, one the Pentagon said “has the footprints” of a Kataib Hezbollah operation.
There have been more than 160 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since October, when the Israel-Hamas war began.
Geoff is the editor of Navy Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at [email protected].
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