Two US navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea on Sunday in an “apparent case of friendly fire”, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in more than a year of the country targeting Yemen’s Houthis.
Both pilots were rescued alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one suffering minor injuries. But the incident underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become amid the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area.
The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi at the time, though the military’s central command (Centcom) did not elaborate on what their mission was.
The F/A-18 shot down had just flown off the deck of the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, Centcom said. On 15 December Centcom acknowledged the Truman had entered the Middle East, but hadn’t specified that the carrier and its battle group was in the Red Sea.
“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,” Centcom said in a statement. The incident was being investigated.
From the military’s description, the aircraft shot down was a two-seat F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet assigned to the “Red Rippers” of strike fighter quadron 11 out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.
Related: US seeks stronger UN powers to intercept Red Sea shipments to Yemen’s Houthis
It wasn’t immediately clear how the Gettysburg could mistake an F/A-18 for an enemy aircraft or missile, particularly as ships in a battle group remain linked by both radar and radio communication.
However, Centcom said that warships and aircraft earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the rebels. Incoming hostile fire from the Houthis has given sailors just seconds to make decisions in the past.
Since the Truman’s arrival, the US has stepped up its airstrikes targeting the Houthis and their missile fire into the Red Sea and the surrounding area. However, the presence of an American warship group may spark renewed attacks from the rebels, like what the USS Dwight D Eisenhower saw earlier this year. That deployment marked what the navy described as its most intense combat since the second world war.
On Saturday night and early Sunday, US warplanes conducted airstrikes that shook Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, which the Houthis have held since 2014. Centcom described the strikes as targeting a “missile storage facility” and a “command-and-control facility”.
According to Centcom, its forces conducted the “deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden”.
Centcom forces also shot down multiple Houthi, one-way attack, uncrewed aerial vehicles, as well as an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea, Centcom said.
Houthi-controlled media reported strikes in both Sana’a and around the port city of Hodeida, without providing any casualty or damage information. In Sana’a, strikes appeared particularly targeted at a mountainside known to be home to military installations. The Houthis later acknowledged the aircraft being shot down in the Red Sea.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed that “in response to the American-British aggression against our country”, Houthi forces suceeded in “thwarting an American-British attack on our country”.
Saree went on to say that the operation was “carried out with eight cruise missiles and 17 drones” and claimed that Houthi forces downed the F/A-18 fighter jet.
The Houthis have targeted about 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023.
The Houthis have seized one vessel and sunk two in a campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by separate US- and European-led coalitions in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included western military vessels.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis also have increasingly targeted Israel itself with drones and missiles, resulting in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
Earlier this week, Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy to Yemen, said the US is seeking increased UN powers to intercept Red Sea shipments headed to Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen.
Speaking about the UN Verification and Inspection Mission for Yemen, Lenderking said: “Unvim is not equipped or given the mandate to do interdictions. We are working with partners to look at a change to the mandate. We all have to plug the holes, and that requires a different mindset and different sort of focus than simply escorting ships.”
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The Associated Press and Maya Yang contributed reporting
