SANA’A, (PIC)
Yemen’s armed forces said on Wednesday evening that they had downed a US F-18 fighter jet during an earlier strike on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, and launched fresh drone attacks over the past 24 hours targeting another US carrier and Israeli cities.
Military spokesman Yehya Sariee said in a televised statement on Yemen’s al-Masirah satellite channel that a previous attack in the Red Sea resulted in the “downing of an F-18 fighter jet into the sea” and forced the Truman to “retreat towards the Suez Canal.”
The US navy claimed on Monday an F/A-18 “Super Hornet” was lost at sea after it fell overboard while being towed aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. A US official said initial reports indicated the jet fell as the carrier made a hard turn to evade incoming Yemeni fire.
Sariee also said Yemen’s armed forces had targeted the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and escort warships in the Arabian Sea with drones.
He added that the armed forces had also launched drone attacks on vital military sites in the Israeli cities of Jaffa and Ashkelon.
Tensions between Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) group and the US have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on northern Yemen on March 15. The US started its campaign against the group to deter the group from targeting Israel and commercial vessels linked to Israel in response to the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The Ansarullah group, which controls much of northern Yemen and its military institutions, repeatedly said they would halt counterattacks on Israel and US forces if Israel ends its genocidal war on Gaza and allows humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
