BATH, Maine — A Navy destroyer built at Bath Iron Works fired at and destroyed three radar sites on the coast of Yemen on Wednesday in retaliation for missile attacks on the USS Mason — also built at BIW — and other vessels operating in international waters in the Red Sea and Bab-al Mandeb Strait.
The U.S. military fired from the Bath-built guided missile destroyer USS Nitze following “hostile acts, continuing and imminent threat of force and multiple threats to vessels in the Bab-al Mandeb Strait,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement late Wednesday night.
Two cruise missiles were launched Sunday at the USS Mason and the amphibious staging base the USS Ponce, The Washington Post reported. On Wednesday at least one missile was fired at the Mason from territory held by Houthis rebels.
The USS Mason was not damaged. However, a previous missile attack, on Oct. 1, caused “near-catastrophic damage” to the HSV-2 Swift, a high-speed vessel operated by the Emiratis. It was once a Navy vessel, according to the Washington Post.
At the recommendations of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Barack Obama authorized the counter attack of the rebel-held sites with multiple Tomahawk cruise missiles.
“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb and elsewhere around the world.”
Human Rights Watch reported Thursday that the incidents followed a Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike on a crowded funeral in Sana, the capital of Yemen, on Saturday, in which at least 100 people were killed. HRW determined the bombing was a war crime, and called on the United States, United Kingdom and other countries to immediately suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.
The USS Mason was launched at Bath Iron Works in June 2001 and the USS Nitze in April 2004.