Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement – better known as the Houthis – has taken credit for downing an American military plane. U.S. Central Command said initially reported that two U.S. Navy pilots safely ejected over the Red Sea on Sunday after the F/A-18 fighter jet they were in was shot down by what had appeared to be friendly fire. The Houthis is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and its allies, and 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.
CENTCOM said in a statement that the F/A-18 was flying off of the USS Harry S. Truman over the Red Sea on Sunday when it was downed, an that one of the pilots may have sustained minor injuries during the ejection. At the time, CENTOM believed that the incident occurred when the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in the region) “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18.” (per NBC News.)
Houthi Brigadier General Yahya Qasim Sare’e said in a statement 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. He added that 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.”
Mohammed al-Houthi later 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,” sharing in a statement: “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. 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.”
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