US threatens retaliation for attack on US warships off Yemen

The United States threatened Tuesday to retaliate for a missile attack that missed a pair of US warships in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.

"Counterstrike, retaliatory strike: I can tell you that those things are things that we are looking at," said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman.

The US Navy has said the missiles, which fell short of the USS Mason, a destroyer, and the USS Ponce, an amphibious warfare ship, were fired within an hour of each other on Sunday from territory in Yemen controlled by Huthi rebels.

"We want very much to get to the bottom of what happened," said Davis. "We're going to find out who did this and we will take action accordingly."

"We will make sure that anybody who interferes with freedom of navigation and puts US Navy ship at risk understands they do so at their own peril," he said.

The United States backs a Saudi-led coalition that is fighting the Huthi rebels and the forces of former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh.

The US military provides intelligence and air-refueling for Arab coalition aircraft conducting air strikes against the rebels. It also supplies advanced munitions and logistics support to the Saudi-led war effort and is the kingdom's biggest arms supplier

But US air forces are not directly involved in air strikes in Yemen, which are increasingly criticized by the international community for their devastating impact on civilians.

After a deadly air strike by the Saudi-led coalition Saturday on a funeral in Yemen that killed more than 140 people, the US administration announced an "immediate review" of its cooperation.

According to Pentagon officials, no concrete action has been taken Tuesday to reduce US support, which is considered limited.

"To go down from there would be almost a stop in any cooperation," said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the Pentagon, Sunday's missile strikes targeted the USS Mason and the USS Ponce, which were patrolling near each other. A Huthi spokesman denied the US ships were targeted.

The Mason took countermeasures after detecting the first missile, which fell into the sea.

No countermeasures were taken when the warships detected a second missile fired about an hour later. It also fell into the sea.

The incident came just days after a warship from the United Arab Emirates, a Saudi ally, was hit by rocket fire in the Red Sea.