Yemeni Attack Intercepted by US Larger than Pentagon Claimed: WSJ

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal says the attack launched by the Yemeni resistance was allegedly launched toward occupied Palestine.

US officials have reported that the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement carried out a more significant attack whose trajectory indicated it was heading toward Israeli-occupied Palestine than initially reported by the Pentagon, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Reportedly, the Yemeni Resistance fired five cruise missiles and roughly 30 drones, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Previously, the Pentagon reported that the USS Carney intercepted four cruise missiles and only 15 drones instead of the reported 30.

CNN reported that the warship, an Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer, intercepted four cruise missiles and 15 drones over nine hours as they were heading north along the Red Sea.

The fifth cruise missile was intercepted by Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon suggested that the missiles's trajectory indicates that they were most likely headed to occupied Palestine to strike Israeli positions.

Yemeni solidarity with Palestine

The attack comes in light of paramount solidarity with the Palestinian people from Yemen, with the support seeing Sanaa seeking to retaliate against the Israeli occupation for its crimes from across the Red Sea.

The missiles were launched "potentially towards targets in Israel," Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said. He revealed that there were three land-attack cruise missiles and several drones.

Ryder also highlighted that some of the projectiles were traveling at very high altitudes when they were intercepted with SM-2 surface-to-air missiles launched from the USS Carney.

Yemen launching projectiles that the US alleges were heading toward 'Israel' comprises a highly rare occurrence, wherein the United States has not engaged Yemeni aerial targets in years, but it also reflects the recently highly vocal Arab solidarity with Palestine.

"The crew of the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney operating in the northern Red Sea earlier today shot down three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi [Ansar Allah] forces in Yemen," Ryder said during a press briefing.

"Information about these engagements is still being processed and we cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel."

Furthermore, Ryder added that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates, Emir Sheikh Tamim of Qatar, as well as his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and "Israel", earlier in the day.

The challenges recently spurring up against the United States in the region come in light of reports that it might intervene in the Israeli aggression on Gaza or in case of a regional war

US not welcome

Two attacks against US military presence in Iraq occurred on Friday, US and Iraqi security sources informed on the matter told AFP.

These attacks come after Iraqi Resistance factions warned the United States against funding and supporting Israeli war crimes against Gazans.

An unnamed official at the Department of Defense told the news agency that a rocket attack targeted American forces and "coalition" allies in the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center at 2:50 AM (local time).

The official asserted that according to a preliminary report, only two rockets were launched, one of which was intercepted by air defense systems, while the other hit an empty storage facility. The official claimed that no casualties were recorded.

Earlier, an Iraqi security source told AFP that three Katyusha/Grad rockets fell in a barracks set up by the US-led international coalition overnight on Friday. US military personnel are stationed at the site which is in close proximity to Baghdad International Airport.

The Iraqi source said that no casualties were recorded due to the attack. However, the source did say that authorities are still assessing material losses.

Attack after attack

On Friday, an explosion was heard in the vicinity of the US Victoria military site, near Baghdad Airport, west of the Iraqi capital, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Iraq.

Simultaneously, several powerful explosions occurred in the Al-Omar oil field and the gas line connecting the Conoco gas field and the Abu Khashab desert in the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor. 

Sources told Al Mayadeen that two drones had "infiltrated the airspace of the US al-Tanf base in the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian tri-border area.

The sources said that the drones "managed to target the base without information about the extent of the losses," adding that there was a subsequent mobilization from the US occupation forces inside the base.

Two US occupation military bases in Syria were targeted on early Thursday after months of relative calm, sources told Al Mayadeen.

Three drones targeted the US-led Coalition occupation base in al-Tanf in Syria, which is located on the Iraq-Syrian border, the sources added, noting that the UAVs were able to fly over the base before striking it.