USS Nicholson warship. Photo: Yemen Military Media.
Western militarization of the Red Sea and brutal airstrikes on Yemen have failed to deter Ansarallah from continuing its naval campaign
The USS Nicholson warship has been repositioned away from Yemen after suffering a recent attack by the Ansarallah movement, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on 15 November, a day after Yemeni resistance leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi confirmed that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was forced to do the same.
“The Nicholson [vessel] was towed towards the Pacific Ocean after being attacked … Its repositioning will not prevent it from being targeted [again] if it is used to carry out hostile acts against Yemen,” Al-Akhbar cited informed military sources in Sanaa as saying.
Houthi had said in a speech on Thursday evening that after “retreating hundreds of miles deep,” the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier “moves either from the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, the edges of the Indian Ocean, or in the Arabian Sea with caution and disguise.” He claimed that “in some instances, the American aircraft carrier navigates close to certain African coastlines out of fear of being targeted.”
The resistance leader confirmed the statement released by the Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government on 12 November by declaring that “Along with the targeting of the aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, two American warships were targeted in the Red Sea.”
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said there were no injuries, and no warships were damaged, adding that it intercepted eight attack drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles, and four anti-ship cruise missiles.
Since Sanaa began its naval operations against Israeli-linked shipping, and after it started targeting US warships following the start of Washington’s violent military campaign against Yemen, the western world – predominantly western militaries – have been awestruck and caught off guard by the capabilities of Yemeni forces.
Ansarallah and the Yemeni army’s missiles “can do things that are just amazing,” the US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante said at an event on Wednesday, expressing that Yemen’s operations “are getting scary.”
US Aircraft Carrier & 2 Naval Destroyers Hit by Major Yemeni Missile & Drone Strike
”I’m an engineer and a physicist, and I’ve been around missiles my whole career. What I’ve seen of what the Houthis have done in the last six months is something that — I’m just shocked,” LaPlante added.
A 15 November report by The National Interest noted how the recent Yemeni attack on US warships “highlights vulnerabilities” in Washington’s fleet.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is not the first aircraft carrier to be targeted by Yemen as in the summer, it struck the USS Eisenhower twice in 24 hours.
US writer on defense and national security affairs told The National Interest that the Eisenhower had a “serious scare” in its battle against Ansarallah earlier this year.
According to the commander of Washington’s USS Carney and other crewmembers of the warship, the Yemeni army has been posing a threat unseen by the US Navy since World War II.
European efforts to deter Sanaa have also failed. The commander of the EU military mission in the Red Sea said in May that he did not have enough ships to confront the Yemeni Armed Forces’ maritime operations.
