SANAA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military forces claimed to have destroyed two Houthi vessels in the Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated on Wednesday.
"Over the last 24 hours, U.S. Central Command successfully destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi vessels in the Red Sea," CENTCOM said on its official X account, citing the imminent and direct threat posed to the coalition forces and commercial shipping in the region.
Responding to the U.S. claim, Abdulrahman Akhanumi, director of the Houthi General Administration of Radio and Television, told Xinhua that "all the propaganda of the United States is baseless, just propaganda."
Since November 2023, Houthi militants based in Yemen have been conducting attacks on international shipping near the country's coastline to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In response, the U.S.-British naval coalition stationed in the waters has conducted regular air raids and missile strikes against Houthi targets since January to deter the group but failed to stop the escalation so far. ■
