Aden, Dec 22 Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent "friendly fire" incident, said the US military.
"The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18," US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.
Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one suffering minor injuries, according to the statement.
The apparent friendly fire incident came the same day US forces conducted airstrikes on a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility reportedly operated by the Houthis group within Sanaa, Yemen.
"CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden," CENTCOM said in a separate statement.
US forces also shot down multiple Houthi one-way attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea, it said, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US military operations came hours after the Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack on central Israel, which injured at least 20 Israelis in Tel Aviv.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have been carrying out rocket and drone attacks on Israeli cities and disrupting "Israeli-linked" shipping in the Red Sea.
In response, the US-led navy coalition stationed in the area has been conducting regular air raids on Houthi targets since January in a bid to deter the armed group.
Last week, the Houthi military authorities had announced that the US and British aircraft have conducted "a new aggression" against targets in Hodeida, a strategic province in western Yemen along the Red Sea coast.
It said that the allied forces targetted the At-Tuhayta district in the southern part of Hodeidah, though specific details about the aerial bombardment were not immediately disclosed.
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