US Navy helicopters sank three vessels operated by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels that had attacked a container ship in the Red Sea, the military said Sunday.

After the Houthis fired on the US helicopters, they “returned fire in self-defence, sinking three of the four small boats, and killing the crews. The fourth boat fled the area,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have disrupted world trade for weeks with attacks on ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea in what they say is a response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

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