A Houthi missile attack aimed at a US destroyer got so close to the warship that it triggered its Close-In Weapons System, known as a last-line of defense, American officials said.
The terror group’s Tuesday night strike against the USS Gravely came within a mile of the ship sailing on the Red Sea, the closest a Houthi attack has come to a US warship, four US officials told CNN.
The missile got so close, in fact, that the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was forced to rely on it Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) for the first time since the Houthis began their assault on military and cargo ships in November, the officials added.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are equipped with the system as a last-line of defense against rocket fire, with the automatic machine guns able to perform close-range interceptions and destroy incoming missiles.
There were no injuries or damages to the ship as a result of the attack, according to US Central Command.
While many Houthi attacks miss their target or fail to reach US warships, the latest attack on the USS Gravely demonstrates how precise the terror group’s strikes can be.
Despite the Houthis claiming that it will target Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as a show of support for Hamas, the Iran-backed rebel group has repeatedly fired at US and British ships.
Following the attack on the USS Gravely, the Houthi celebrated the strike as “a victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the American-British aggression against our country.”
The attacks caused the US and European Union to ramp up their defense capabilities, with the US taking out several Houthi drones and a ground control station in Yemen on Thursday, Central Command said.
The terrorist’s base and its assets were destroyed after being labeled an “imminent threat” to merchant vessels and Navy ships operating in the region, officials said.
It was the second American strike in Yemen in two days after the US also intercepted a Houthi surface-to-air missile that was prepared to launch and posed “an imminent threat to US aircraft operating in the region,” according to Central Command.
Wednesday also saw the European Union commit to launching a full naval mission in the Red Sea within the next three weeks in order to protect cargo ships from the terrorist group.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that the naval fleet would only engage in shielding the cargo vessels traveling through the Red Sea and would not engage in direct combat with the Houthis.
The terrorists’ leaders, however, have welcomed the idea of a war against the US and its allies, describing such a conflict as an “honor” and something that all of Yemen would be ready for.
“We are prepared for a long-term confrontation with the forces of tyranny,” Houthi commander Muhammad al-Attifi said in a statement earlier this week.