US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said that it conducted strikes against two Yemeni mobile anti-ship cruise missiles which were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

According to The Iran Project,CENTCOM announced the “self-defense” strikes on Thursday on its X account, saying they were conducted on Wednesday night against missiles of Houthis, a term used by Western officials and media for the Ansarullah resistance movement in Yemen.

“On Feb. 7, at approximately 9:00 p.m. (Sanaa time), US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted self-defense strikes against two Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.”

The US military also conducted a second strike against what it said was a mobile land attack cruise missile prepared to launch. This attack occurred the same day at 11:30 p.m. (Sanaa time), according to CENTCOM post on X, formerly Twitter.

It claimed that the Yemeni missiles “presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.”

Following the massacre of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli regime’s army and the United States’ all-out support for the genocidal war, Yemen’s resistance fighters and armed forces started attacks on Israeli ships and Israel-bound vessels in the Red Sea in mid-November, with the aim of forcing the regime to stop the onslaught on Gaza.

The US and the UK kicked off strikes on Yemen in mid-January for what they described as protecting international shipping.

Yemen has time and again said that its Red Sea attacks only target Israeli-linked ships and other vessels can freely navigate in the crucial waterway.

On Thursday, Ansarullah Leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said that Yemeni fighters are determined to continue attacks on Israeli positions in the occupied territories and their ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait until the Israeli regime stops its war on Gaza and lifts the blockade of the territory.