Two US Navy pilots had been shot down over the Pink Sea early Sunday in “an obvious case of pleasant fireplace,” the US army mentioned.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels mentioned in a while Sunday that they had “focused” the plane provider USS Harry S Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to “capturing down an F-18 plane” and thwarting “American-British aggression” towards Yemen.
United States Central Command mentioned late on Saturday that each US pilots had been recovered alive however “preliminary assessments point out that one of many crew members sustained minor accidents”.
This incident, “was not the results of hostile fireplace, and a full investigation is underway,” CENTCOM mentioned.
The possibly disastrous mistake underscores the risks of a mission america has been concerned in for greater than a yr to counter Yemen’s Huthi rebels.
The Huthis have repeatedly focused service provider vessels within the Pink Sea and Gulf of Aden, waterways very important to world commerce.
CENTCOM mentioned the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18” fighter plane, which Navy pilots had flown off the USS Harry S Truman.
On Saturday america mentioned it struck targets together with a missile storage facility in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa, hours after a Huthi insurgent missile wounded folks in Israel’s industrial hub Tel Aviv.
US forces additionally shot down a number of Huthi assault drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Pink Sea, CENTCOM mentioned.
“The operation concerned US Air Power and US Navy belongings, together with F/A-18s,” CENTCOM mentioned.
The Huthis say they’re appearing in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the place Israel and Hamas have been at conflict since October 7, 2023.
