The Pentagon refused to say on Monday whether the USS Mason was targeted again by missiles launched from Yemen on Saturday, as originally believed. It said an investigation was under way to find out what happened.
Any indication that the Houthis targeted the guided-missile destroyer on Saturday could have military ramifications. The United States has warned to strike back again should its ships come under fire from Houthi-controlled Yemen territory.
After two confirmed attempts to hit the USS Mason with coastal cruise missiles last week, the United States executed missile strikes on radar sites in Yemen on Thursday.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a new briefing that they are still evaluating the situation. He said that there are still some aspects that they are trying to clarify given the potential threat to “our people.”
Cook acknowledged that the crew of the USS Mason responded appropriately when they detected what appeared to be a missile threat.
Nevertheless, US officials warned that facts from the incident were still under evaluation. It was not known when a conclusion might be made about how many, if any, missiles were fired at the destroyer.
The retaliatory missile strikes by the US on Thursday knocked out three coastal radar sites in Houthi territory. It was the first military action by Washington against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.
The war in Yemen between the Houthi group, backed by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the Saudi Arabia-supported internationally recognized government of Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, has been going on since March 2015.
The Houthi movement has denied firing on the USS Mason. However, it did promise to retaliate following a Saudi-led strike on a funeral assembled in Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, last week. the attack killed more than 140 people, according to one UN estimate.
The US has denounced the strike and vowed to reassess US military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. Yemenis, closely associated the US military with the campaign.
On Saturday, a fact-finding body established by the Saudi-led coalition attributed a string of factors for the funeral strikes. The investigative body said the coalition received inaccurate information from Yemeni military officials that armed Houthi leaders were in the area at the time.
No justification for air-strike on 600 people
Rep. Ted Lieu, a leading campaigner in Congress for a pause in U.S. cooperation with the Saudi-led coalition, stated that explanation seemed to him like an acknowledgement of a war crime.
He said that even if some rebels had been present at the funeral, that would not justify an air-strike that targeted more than 600 civilians.
He added that the US also needs to instantly cease aiding and abetting a Saudi coalition that has committed war crimes.
The post Pentagon Casts Cautious Stance on Latest Yemen Missile Attack appeared first on Newsline.
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