WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast early Thursday, officials said, a retaliatory action that followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at U.S. Navy ships.

The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Houthis in Yemen’s long-running civil war. The U.S. previously only provided logistical support and refueling to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, including supporters of Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

While the U.S. military has been focused on al-Qaida in Yemen, the Houthis had not been a primary target of American forces until the missile launches from Houthi-controlled territory this week.

No information on casualties from the U.S. missiles was provided by American officials. The three radar sites were in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage, said a military official who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The destroyer USS Nitze launched the cruise missiles, the official said.

President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. U.S. officials had said earlier that the U.S. was weighing what military response to take.

“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 following the U.S. action. “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.”

Loai al-Shami, a Houthi spokesman, declined to comment immediately on the U.S. strike.

Early Wednesday, two missiles were fired at the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer that is conducting routine operations in the region with the USS Ponce, an amphibious warship. Neither missile got near the ship, said a U.S. military official.

The missiles were fired from the Yemen coast, near the location used Sunday when two missiles were launched at the same two ships, said the official, who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second official said it wasn’t clear whether the ship’s countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or if they would have landed there anyway. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“These unjustified attacks are serious, but they will not deter us from our mission,” the chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, said in a statement Wednesday. “The team in USS Mason demonstrated initiative and toughness as they defended themselves and others against these unfounded attacks over the weekend and again today. All Americans should be proud of them.”

The missiles fired on Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both also fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use.

Sunday was the first time that U.S. ships were targeted by a missile launch from Yemen. Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

The U.S. has been considering withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis following Saturday’s airstrike on a funeral and other troubling incidents of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

The strike on the funeral in the capital, Sanaa, killed some 140 people and wounded more than 600. That bombing, among the deadliest of the war, likely sparked the rebels to launch more ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia and target the U.S. warships in the Red Sea.

Human rights groups have expressed outrage over the deaths and accused the U.S. of complicity, leading the White House to say it was conducting a “review” to ensure U.S. cooperation with longtime partner Saudi Arabia is in line with “U.S. principles, values and interests.”

Meanwhile, an international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the funeral bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and that the remnants of missiles found at the site of the attack showed that they were American-made. It said a disproportionate number of the victims were civilians when the coalition carried out two airstrikes.

An international investigation is needed into the “atrocity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the rights group. She said the attack on the funeral joins a long list of abuses by the coalition.

The U.S. missile launch also could affect relations with Iran, which says it backs the Yemeni rebels but denies arming them. That’s contradicted by the U.S. Navy, which says it has intercepted several shipping boats since the war began carrying Iranian weaponry suspected to be on the way to Yemen.

There was no immediate reaction to the U.S. launch Thursday morning in Iran, which was marking the Shiite commemoration of Ashoura. Houthi-linked media also did not report the strike.

The missile fire by the Houthi raises questions about maritime safety in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal. The U.S. moved more naval ships near the strait after an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

Analysts with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called the Houthi missile fire “a surprisingly aggressive move,” but stressed there were limits to Iran’s control of the rebels.

“Houthi relations with the Islamic Republic resemble the Iran-Hamas relationship more than the Iran-Hezbollah relationship — that is, the Houthis are autonomous partners who usually act in accordance with their own interests, though often with smuggled Iranian arms and other indirect help,” the analysts wrote in a report released early Thursday.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Sanaa, Yemen, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.</s>The USS Mason, which was accompanied by the USS Ponce - an amphibious transport dock - fired defensive salvos in response to the missiles, neither of which hit the ship or caused any damage as it operated north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The renewed attempt to target the U.S. Navy destroyer will add pressure on the U.S. military to retaliate, a move that would represent the first direct U.S. military action against Houthis in Yemen's conflict. The Pentagon hinted about possible retaliatory strikes on Tuesday.

The incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

The Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, denied any involvement in the previous attempt to strike the USS Mason or the nearby USS Ponce on Sunday.

But U.S. officials have told Reuters there is growing indications that Houthi rebels, despite those denials, were responsible for Sunday's incident.

The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct the missile attack on the warship. The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also "painted" the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Houthi fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, the officials have said.

The Houthis, who are allied to Hadi's predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north including the capital Sanaa.

Reuters has learned that the coastal defense cruise missiles used against the USS Mason on Sunday had considerable range, adding to concerns about the kind of heavy weaponry that the Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which U.S. officials believe is supplied by Iran.</s>The U.S. Navy fired cruise missiles at three radar facilities in rebel-controlled territory in Yemen on Thursday. The strikes were conducted in retaliation for missiles that were fired recently at an American warship that the United States says was in international waters. Here is a quick rundown on what the country's civil war is about:

Who is fighting in Yemen?

The civil war is essentially between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, concentrated in the north, and forces loyal to the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who are backed by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and now control the vital port city of Aden and other territory in the south. The Houthis are allied with forces loyal to Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The underlying conflict fueling the war is the rivalry between Saudi Arabia, a major Sunni power on Yemen's northern border, and Iran, the Saudis' Shiite rival in the Middle East. There are also elements of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the country, said Katherine Zimmerman, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

How did the Yemen civil war start?

The United States had supported the government of Saleh, who was considered a key partner in the fight against extremism. But Saleh was forced to resign in 2011 because of growing political unrest, and he handed over power to Hadi. Violence grew, and in 2014, the Iranian-backed Houthis took over the capital of Sanaa, triggering a civil war that has shown no signs of ending. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State terrorists emerged stronger as the country spiraled further into chaos.

How is the United States involved?

The United States, the major supplier of weapons to Saudi Arabia for decades, provided some intelligence and surveillance support when the Saudi-led coalition began its airstrikes against the Houthis last year. But it has been reducing that support amid growing concerns that the Saudi-led airstrikes were indiscriminately killing civilians. This week, the White House said it would review its support of Saudi military operations in Yemen following reports that more than 140 people were killed and hundreds injured in a Saudi airstrike on a funeral in Sanaa. Still, the United States has used drones in Yemen to target al-Qaeda, and earlier this year it sent American advisers to Yemen to help a contingent of United Arab Emirate troops battle al-Qaeda. “What we’re trying to do is divorce our counter-terrorism fight from the civil war,” Zimmerman said.

Will the U.S. get drawn into the civil war?

The U.S. government wants to avoid that. The Pentagon characterized the Navy strikes as limited retaliation for several missiles that were fired at the American warship. In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook called them “limited self-defense strikes.” But he said the military would not hesitate to respond again if U.S. ships are threatened in international waters. “We’re trying to avoid getting dragged into the Yemeni civil war,” said Zimmerman.</s>(CNN) An American destroyer struck three sites in Yemen on Thursday, hours after missiles targeted a US warship in the Red Sea for the second time in four days , defense officials said.

The USS Mason was targeted late Wednesday by missiles from territory controlled by the Houthis -- a minority Shia group that has taken control of swathes of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

The strikes marks the first instance of the US firing at Houthi targets since the Yemen civil war erupted in March last year.

The same warship was targeted Sunday, when two missiles were launched within 60 minutes of each other, but in both incidents they missed the ship and landed in the water. The guided-missile destroyer was not damaged in either incident, officials said.

The US warship was conducting routine operations in international waters off the Yemen coast when it was targeted Wednesday, the Pentagon said.

The Houthis have denied carrying out the attacks.

'We will respond to this threat'

The Pentagon said its destroyer USS Nitze launched Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the coastal radar sites controlled by the Houthi group in "self defense."

Another official said initial assessments indicated all three targets were destroyed, and that the strikes were in remote areas with little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage.

"USS Mason will continue its operations. Those who threaten our forces should know that US commanders retain the right to defend their ships, and we will respond to this threat at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

A Houthi military official said "there is no truth to these allegations" in response to Wednesday's incident. Houthi militias had "nothing to do with this act," the Houthi-affiliated SABA news agency reported.

The US had backed the formally recognized government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose government has been essentially forced from Sanaa to Aden. Hadi himself is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia, as are several senior members of his administration.

The Houthis support the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"The United States, United Kingdom, and other governments should immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia," Human Rights Watch said, calling the attack an "apparent war crime."

"The funeral strike underscores the urgent need for credible international investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen," it said.

Critics of the military deal, which was approved by the Obama administration, complained it could further drag the US into the war in Yemen and contribute to the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Since peace talks in Kuwait failed in August, the coalition has intensified airstrikes despite criticism from rights groups that the attacks often hit civilian targets with devastating results.</s>The US military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday that targeted coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces.

According to initial Pentagon reports, the three sites were destroyed.

The action comes after failed missile attacks this week on a US Navy destroyer, US officials said.

The strikes are Washington’s first direct military action against Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

However, the Pentagon appeared to stress the defensive nature of the strikes, which were aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the US Navy destroyer USS Mason since Sunday.

US officials said the USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4am local time.

“These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” including the USS Mason, one of the officials said.

The official said the areas targeted were near Ras Isa, north of Mukha, and near Khoka.

The missile attacks on the USS Mason - the latest of which took place earlier on Wednesday - appeared to be the Houthis’ response to a suspected Saudi-led strike on mourners gathered in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa.

The missile incidents, along with an October 1st strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces, retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials said.

The strikes, authorized by President Barack Obama, represent Washington’s first direct military action against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

Still, the Pentagon appeared to stress the limited nature of the strikes, aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the U.S. Navy ship USS Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT).

“These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” including the USS Mason, one of the officials said, adding the targeted radar sites were in remote areas where the risk of civilian casualties was low.

The official identified the areas in Yemen where the radar were located as near Ras Isa, north of Mukha and near Khoka.

Shipping sources told Reuters sites were hit in the Dhubab district of Taiz province, a remote area overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Straight known for fishing and smuggling.

SAFE PASSAGE

The failed missile attacks on the USS Mason appeared to be part of the reaction to a suspected Saudi-led strike on mourners gathered in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, denied any involvement in Sunday's attempt to strike the USS Mason.

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On Thursday, the Houthis reiterated a denial that they carried out the strikes and said they did not come from areas under their control, a news agency controlled by the group reported a military source as saying.

The allegations were false pretexts to “escalate aggression and cover up crimes committed against the Yemeni people”, the source said.

A still image from video released October 13, 2016 shows U.S. military launching cruise missile strikes from U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nitze to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi forces. REUTERS/DIVIDS via Reuters TV

U.S. officials have told Reuters there were growing indications that Houthi fighters, or forces aligned with them, were responsible for Sunday’s attempted strikes, in which two coastal cruise missiles designed to target ships failed to reach the destroyer.

The missile incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Houthis, who are allied to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north, including the capital Sanaa.

The Pentagon warned against any future attacks.

“The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate,” Cook said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a leading member of a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to end Houthi control, denounced the attacks on the Mason as an attempt to target the freedom of navigation and to inflame the regional situation.

Michael Knights, an expert on Yemen’s conflict at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suggested the Houthis, fighters from a Shi’ite sect, could be becoming more militarily aligned with groups such as Lebanon’s Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

Slideshow (5 Images)

“Targeting U.S. warships is a sign that the Houthis have decided to join the axis of resistance that currently includes Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran,” Knight said.

Although Thursday’s strikes against the radar aim to undercut the ability to track and target U.S. ships, the Houthis are still believed to possess missiles that could pose a threat.

Reuters has reported that the coastal defense cruise missiles used against the USS Mason had considerable range, fuelling concern about the kind of weaponry the Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which, U.S. officials believe, is supplied by Iran.

One of the missiles fired on Sunday traveled more than two dozen nautical miles before splashing into the Red Sea off Yemen’s southern coast, one U.S. official said.</s>Two missiles were fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen at a U.S. Navy ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday, marking the second time in four days that such an attack has occurred, defense officials said.

The U.S. responded early today by launching Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi territory on Yemen's coast, American officials said.

A Pentagon spokesman said President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford.

Spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement that the U.S. actions were limited self-defense strikes conducted to protect personnel, ships and freedom of navigation.

The strikes came hours after missiles were fired at the USS Mason, a guided-missile destroyer that also came under fire Sunday night. The weapons were launched from an area of Yemen held by the Houthis, a rebel group that pushed the central government out of power in the capital city of Sanaa in 2014 and that has resisted U.S.-backed efforts by Saudi Arabia to restore Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

An official said the USS Mason used countermeasures, but neither missile got near the ship and there were no injuries.

A second official said it wasn't clear whether the ship's countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or whether they would have landed there anyway.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the incident publicly, so they spoke on condition of anonymity.

The missiles fired Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal-defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use. Iran has backed the Shiite Houthi rebels.

On Sunday, two other missiles were launched from Yemen at the Mason and the USS Ponce, an amphibious ship used as a forward staging base. In that case, the first missile was launched while the ships were at least 12 miles away from Yemen's shore in international waters near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a waterway between Yemen and Djibouti that is heavily trafficked by oilers.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Tuesday that the first missile was launched Sunday about 7 p.m. from a coastal area.

"We want very much to get to the bottom of what happened," Davis said. "Anybody who fires on U.S. Navy ships does so at peril to themselves."

A report from USNI News published Monday said the Mason fired at least three missiles in its defense: two Standard Missile-2s and an Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missile to intercept the one fired from Yemen. The outcome of those launches was not clear. The Mason also fired a Nulka anti-ship missile decoy, the report said. The decoys are designed to fool incoming missiles into believing there is another, larger ship to hit than the one targeted.

The missile launches from both sides come as the U.S. considers withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, after Saturday's airstrike on the funeral and other troubling instances of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

Saturday's strikes killed more than 140 people and wounded hundreds more. Saudi officials have denied they carried out the attack, but two U.S. defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said there is little reason to believe that.

President Barack Obama's administration said after the strikes on the funeral that they had "initiated an immediate review of our already significantly reduced support" to the Saudis and are "prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with U.S. principles, values and interests, including achieving an immediate and durable end to Yemen's tragic conflict."

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Army Maj. Josh Jacques, said late Tuesday that at that point, the military had not been directed to change any support in regard to Saudi Arabia. Refueling operations are carried out at the request of the Saudis, most recently on Sunday, outside Yemeni airspace, he said.

More than 4,000 civilians have been killed since the Saudis began launching airstrikes against the rebels in March 2015.

Information for this article was contributed by Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post and by Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press.</s>(CNN) Just when you thought the complicated, tangled web of who's fighting who in the Middle East couldn't get more complicated, the rules have changed. Again.

The latest twist comes in Yemen, where this week a USS warship launched Tomahawk cruise missiles into Yemen

According to a Pentagon spokesperson, the missiles targeted radar sites in Houthi-held territory, sites the US claims were being used to launch missiles toward a different American warship (the USS Mason) in two separate incidents earlier this week . Neither incident caused any damage, according to the Pentagon, as the missiles fell into the water.

Independent verification is hard to come by in the Yemeni war. It's unclear who, if anyone, fired the missiles from Yemeni soil. The Houthis strongly reject the accusations, saying that they didn't fire any missiles at US warships. They claim the entire episode is meant as a distraction, to draw attention away from the horrible toll the war is taking on innocent civilians.

According to the UN, an average of 13 Yemeni civilians are killed every day by Saudi-led airstrikes. In the most recent example, a double-tap airstrike killed more than 150 people and injured hundreds more who had gathered at a funeral service.

The lack of independent, verifiable information notwithstanding, the US airstrikes still are a significant development. It marks the first time the US has directly targeted and attacked sites inside Yemeni territory using its own missiles from its own warships.

It effectively makes the United States an active combatant in the war.

The US had until now limited its role to providing intelligence, coordination and logistics to the Saudi-backed bombing campaign, plus providing airborne fueling tankers to enable Saudi jets to refuel in mid-air. Since the war began, the United States also has agreed to sell Saudi Arabia more than $22 billion worth of weapons, some specifically earmarked to replace those that have already been dropped on Yemen.

Until now, Yemen has effectively been the Middle East's second biggest proxy war (with Syria being the first), pitting Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries against Yemen's Houthi minority and its Iranian backers.

Now that the US is directly involved, it raises some difficult questions:

Does this mark a turning point, with the US prepared to take on a more active, long-term combat role?

How will it affect its relationship with the Saudis, after the State Department recently implied it would cut off funding if the Saudis didn't take stronger measures to avoid civilian deaths?

What happens if Iranian ships are targeted in international waters, and they choose to retaliate in the same fashion?

If the US pretext for launching missiles strikes into Yemen was on the grounds that it was an act of self-defense, could that provide a justification for Iran to do the same?

All of these are troubling prospects.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast early Thursday, officials said, a retaliatory action that followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at U.S. Navy ships.

The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Houthis in Yemen’s long-running civil war. The U.S. previously only provided logistical support and refueling to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, including supporters of Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

While the U.S. military has been focused on al-Qaida in Yemen, the Houthis had not been a primary target of American forces until the missile launches from Houthi-controlled territory this week.

No information on casualties from the U.S. missiles was provided by American officials. The three radar sites were in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage, said a military official who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The destroyer USS Nitze launched the cruise missiles, the official said.

President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. U.S. officials had said earlier that the U.S. was weighing what military response to take.

“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 following the U.S. action. “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.”

Meanwhile, the state news agency Saba— under Houthis’ control— quoted an unnamed military official as saying that US accusations that a US destroyer had come under attack from areas under control of Houthis were false. He said, “all these claims are totally untrue and that the popular committees (Houthi militias) have nothing to do with such action.”

He added, “such claims are part of the general context of creating false justifications to escalate assaults and cover up the continuous crimes committed by the aggression against the Yemeni people, along with the blockade imposed on it, and after the increasing condemnations to such barbaric and hideous crimes against Yemenis.”

Loai al-Shami, a Houthi spokesman, had earlier declined to comment on the U.S. strike.

Early Wednesday, two missiles were fired at the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer that is conducting routine operations in the region with the USS Ponce, an amphibious warship. Neither missile got near the ship, said a U.S. military official.

The missiles were fired from the Yemen coast, near the location used Sunday when two missiles were launched at the same two ships, said the official, who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second official said it wasn’t clear whether the ship’s countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or if they would have landed there anyway. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“These unjustified attacks are serious, but they will not deter us from our mission,” the chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, said in a statement Wednesday. “The team in USS Mason demonstrated initiative and toughness as they defended themselves and others against these unfounded attacks over the weekend and again today. All Americans should be proud of them.”

Col. Walid Zeyad, a top naval official in Hodeida, told the AP that radars were in three different sites: Ras Eissa and Khoukha (both in Hodeida) and al-Makha port, of the western province of Taiz. He said that they were hit early morning around 7 a.m.

The area is a hub of weapons smuggling. The general impression in Yemen was that since the Saudi imposition of a blockade, and the air campaign, all radars were destroyed. When asked Zeyad if these radars are new, he declined to comment.

The missiles fired on Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both also fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use.

Sunday was the first time that U.S. ships were targeted by a missile launch from Yemen. Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

The U.S. has been considering withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis following Saturday’s airstrike on a funeral and other troubling incidents of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

The strike on the funeral in the capital, Sanaa, killed some 140 people and wounded more than 600. That bombing, among the deadliest of the war, likely sparked the rebels to launch more ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia and target the U.S. warships in the Red Sea.

Human rights groups have expressed outrage over the deaths and accused the U.S. of complicity, leading the White House to say it was conducting a “review” to ensure U.S. cooperation with longtime partner Saudi Arabia is in line with “U.S. principles, values and interests.”

Meanwhile, an international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the funeral bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and that the remnants of missiles found at the site of the attack showed that they were American-made. It said a disproportionate number of the victims were civilians when the coalition carried out two airstrikes.

An international investigation is needed into the “atrocity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the rights group. She said the attack on the funeral joins a long list of abuses by the coalition.

The U.S. missile launch also could affect relations with Iran, which says it backs the Yemeni rebels but denies arming them. That’s contradicted by the U.S. Navy, which says it has intercepted several shipping boats since the war began carrying Iranian weaponry suspected to be on the way to Yemen.

There was no immediate reaction to the U.S. launch Thursday morning in Iran, which was marking the Shiite commemoration of Ashoura. Houthi-linked media also did not report the strike.

The missile fire by the Houthi raises questions about maritime safety in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal. The U.S. moved more naval ships near the strait after an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

Analysts with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called the Houthi missile fire “a surprisingly aggressive move,” but stressed there were limits to Iran’s control of the rebels.

“Houthi relations with the Islamic Republic resemble the Iran-Hamas relationship more than the Iran-Hezbollah relationship — that is, the Houthis are autonomous partners who usually act in accordance with their own interests, though often with smuggled Iranian arms and other indirect help,” the analysts wrote in a report released early Thursday.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Sanaa, Yemen, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.</s>Breaking News Navy strikes radar sites off Yemen in response to missile attacks on ships

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason nests alongside the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout in this Sept. 4, 2016 photo.

The United States attacked three radar sites in Yemen early Thursday in response to missile attacks launched by pro-Iranian rebels on Navy ships off Yemen’s coast.

Initial assessments show the Houthi rebel-controlled sites were destroyed, according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.

The USS Nitze launched Tomahawk missiles at targets north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which lies between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, according to the Washington Post and Pentagon reports.

“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 strikes were authorized by President Barack Obama on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The radar site strikes followed attacks launched Sunday at the destroyer USS Mason and the amphibious staging base USS Ponce while the ships transited international waters, according to earlier Pentagon statements.

On Oct. 1, a missile heavily damaged the HSV-2 Swift, a former Navy high-speed vessel operated by the United Arab Emirates, according to reports and photos released by the Emirati government.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Emirati ship but denied responsibility for attacking the U.S. Navy, according to the Washington Post. However, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said Tuesday that “the facts certainly point” to Houthi involvement in the attacks on USS Mason and USS Ponce.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea form part of a critical commercial passageway for oilers and other commercial traffic transiting through the Suez Canal.

“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,” Cook said.
The U.S. military launches Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS Nitze against Houthi-controlled radar sites in Yemen following two incidents in which, according to U.S. military, missiles were fired on United States Navy vessels in the Red Sea.