Two US Navy pilots survived the destruction of their plane on Sunday over the Red Sea, shot down “by mistake” by a missile fired from an American cruiser, the army announced.
“Initial analyzes indicate that one of the crew members was slightly injured,” reported the American Central Command for the Middle East (Centcom) in a press release.
“The incident was not the result of hostile fire,” the army described, and an investigation was opened for “a suspected case of friendly fire.”
According to Centcom, the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “fired in error […] and hit” an F/A-18 fighter plane on which were the two US Navy pilots who had taken off from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.
The United States has established a multinational naval coalition in the region in response to months-long attacks off Yemen by Houthi rebels, which are disrupting traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a maritime zone essential for global trade.
The rebels, who control large swathes of Yemen and are backed by Iran, are targeting ships they believe are linked to Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians amid the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
These attacks have prompted Washington to strike rebel targets in Yemen, sometimes with help from the United Kingdom.
On Saturday, the United States claimed to have shot down Houthi military installations in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, a few hours after a shooting, claimed by the rebels, left 16 lightly injured in central Israel.
Rebel drones and cruise missiles were also shot down over the Red Sea, according to Centcom.
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