Dec. 22 (UPI) — Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, has taken credit for the downing of an American military plane after the U.S. Central Command said it was shot in a friendly fire incident.
Two pilots with the U.S. Navy ejected from a fighter jet flying off from the USS Harry S. Truman over the Red Sea on Sunday when the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18,” NBC News reported citing a Central Command statement.
American officials reportedly said one of the pilots may have sustained minor injuries and that an investigation into the incident was underway.
The statement came after Central Command said it conducted “precision” airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia Muslim armed movement and participant in Yemen’s multi-faction civil war.
The Houthis, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and its allies, have exchanged missile fire with Israel and have attacked shipping vessels in the Red Sea to support Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza, leading to military action against them by the United States, Israel’s ally.
American authorities did not make clear if those airstrikes were tied to the alleged friendly fire incident. But American authorities boasted of shooting down multiple one-way drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea in an operation involving F/A-18s.
Houthi Brigadier General Yahya Qasim Sare’e said in a statement posted on Telegram and reviewed by UPI that the Yemeni militia had succeeded in thwarting a joint American-British attack on the country by targeting the American ships on Saturday evening as the airstrikes were being carried out.
Sare’e said the Houthi operation was carried out with eight cruise missiles and 17 drones that led to the downing of the fighter jet and “the failure of the hostile attack on Yemeni territory.”
It appeared as if the Houthis were taking credit for the friendly fire incident by causing confusion with its attack, though the group seemingly did not shoot down the plane itself.
“The American attacks on Yemen are condemned and illegal terrorist attacks that support the terrorism of the temporary Israeli entity to continue the genocide and siege of the people of Gaza,” Mohammed al-Houthi said in a statement.
“The American terrorist attacks confirm the lawless rampage and criminality in the region. The reckless terrorist actions against Yemen do not stop the support operations for Gaza.”
Al-Houthi alleged that the U.S. Central Command would not disclose the truth about the crash of the plane “to prevent further collapse of the morale of its soldiers.”
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