US-led coalition shoots down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Houthis in Red Sea

US military says it was responding to a large-scale attack by the Iran-aligned group that posed an ‘imminent threat’.

United States Navy ships and aircraft have shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea area.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday that the US-led naval coalition was responding to a large-scale attack by “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists” launched into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between 4am and 6:30am (01:00-03:30 GMT).

The uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) presented “an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships in the region,” the military said on X.

“These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure.”

The Houthi’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on Saturday that the group had carried out two military operations, the first of which targeted US bulk carrier Propel Fortune in the Gulf of Aden.

In the second operation, Saree claimed that several US military destroyers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden were targeted “by 37 drones”.

This week, at least three seafarers were killed in a Houthi missile attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, the US military said, marking the first deaths reported since the Yemeni group began attacks against shipping in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes over Israel’s war on Gaza.

Despite a series of air raids by US and British forces on Houthi targets, the group that controls the most populous parts of Yemen has remained capable of launching significant attacks.

Those have included last month’s strike on a cargo ship carrying fertiliser, the Rubymar, which sank on Saturday after drifting for several days, and the downing of a US drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

Houthi fighters in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping since mid-November, disrupting global commerce along a route that accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa.