A US Navy destroyer in the Red Sea may have been targeted by multiple surface-to-surface missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory, US officials said.

    The destroyer USS Mason fired defensive countermeasures in response to what may have been incoming missiles, a defense official said. The ship had been attacked two times before in the past week, which triggered retaliatory strikes against radars used by Houthi rebels in those attacks. The Pentagon is investigating the incident.

    "A US Strike Group transiting international waters in the Red Sea detected possible inbound missile threats and deployed appropriate defensive measures," said a US defense official. "Post event assessment is ongoing. All US warships and vessels in the area are safe".

    The destroyer USS Nitze and the USS Ponce, an afloat forward staging area ship, were close to the Mason at the time. The latest incident comes just days after the United States military launched a retaliatory missile attack that destroyed three Houthi radar sites used in the previous attacks. 

    In the earlier attacks, three missiles fired at the USS Mason from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen all fell into the sea. It remained unclear whether two of them fell on their own into the sea or because of the defensive countermeasures used by the destroyer's crew.

    Those strikes led to US retaliatory missile strikes on Thursday targeting radars were located in Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. In a statement, the Pentagon warned that any new missile attacks risked another US military response.

Source: QNA