What You Need to Know: Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen are claiming victory over the United States Navy. Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Ansar Allah movement, asserted that Yemen has challenged U.S. naval forces, stating that American aircraft carriers like the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Abraham Lincoln have retreated from the region after supposed attacks.
-These claims are unsubstantiated and have been reported by regional news outlets despite lacking evidence.
-In contrast, the U.S. has increased its military presence, deploying B-52 and B-2 bombers, as well as fighter jets like F-22s and naval vessels, to counter threats in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. U.S. officials have dismissed the Houthi claims, emphasizing that no U.S. warships have been damaged.
While it is impossible to know how the history of our modern era might be written about a century from now, today at least, the Iran-back Houthi militants in Yemen are claiming victory over the United States.
Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Ansar Allah movement in the Arab nation – which remains engaged in a brutal civil war – reaffirmed the group's support for the "Resistance in Gaza" and said that it will continue its operations against shipping in the region.
"Yemen has challenged America with its warships and fleets at sea after it declared aggression against us, and Yemen has stood firm and never retreated from its position," Sayyed al-Houthi told the Lebanese-based pan-Arabist news outlet Al Mayadeen. "Yemen targeted America's aircraft carriers, which terrorize many countries, regimes, and governments, using them to intimidate those who compete with it internationally."
In June, the militant group, which Tehran continues to support, first claimed it had damaged the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), and shared dubious images on its social media networks that the warship was forced to return to port for repairs.
Some images weren't even of CVN-69, with at least one being Russia's problem-plagued Admiral Kuznetsov, which remains in port undergoing its never-ending refit. Yet, regional news organizations in Yemen and Iran still reported the debunked claims as fact.
In his recent address, Sayyed al-Houthi doubled down on his past statements and suggested that the Houthis have now driven away the U.S. Navy, and liberated the waters of the Middle East.
"Yemen targeted the aircraft carriers, starting with the USS Eisenhower, which fled the Red Sea defeated, humiliated, and expelled," Sayyed al-Houthi boosted, and further claimed, "With the announcement of the US Navy's retreat, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is now fleeing from the Arabian Sea after coming under attack, and the decision was made for it to return to where it came from and escape."
The Houthi leader further called for his supporters to take part in demonstrations across the region.
Sayyed al-Houthi did not acknowledge, however, that not a single missile or drone did any damage to the U.S. Navy's carriers or other warships. In addition, his statement didn't address the fact that the Pentagon has bolstered the U.S. presence by deploying Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the Middle East, and has continued to rotate other aircraft including fifth-generation F-22 Raptors, along with F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters and A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support (CAS) aircraft to the region.
Last month, a pair of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers also conducted a strike on underground bunkers used by the Iranian-back Houthi rebels. It marked the first time the B-2 has been used in combat since 2017, and as in past operations, the bombers were deployed from their home field at Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB), Missouri.
U.S. officials said the bunkers were used to store advanced conventional weapons that had been employed in strikes against military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. U.S. Central Command claimed that no civilians had been killed in the airstrikes.
U.S. Navy destroyers also continue to operate in the Red Sea, while the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) along with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), is on station in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.
Image Credit: All images are faked Houthi images of various claimed attacks on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.
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