An hourslong firefight involving U.S. commercial vessels in the Red Sea this weekend has left some U.S. officials frustrated by what they see as the Biden administration’s deliberate downplaying of a major threat to American forces.
A U.S. Navy warship scrambled to respond to multiple distress calls on Sunday, as Houthi rebels in Yemen launched missiles and drones against three separate commercial vessels. The USS Carney fired back, taking down three unmanned aerial systems.
Defense Department spokespeople and top administration officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have said the U.S. “cannot assess” that the Carney was the target of the attacks. Similarly, after previous Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in past weeks, the Pentagon said officials did not believe the Houthis were aiming for the U.S. warships.
But four other officials with knowledge of the discussions said in interviews that U.S. naval forces are clearly under threat in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
“If our ships see something is coming near them or toward them, they are going to assess it as a threat and shoot it down,” said one DOD official, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “You’d be hard-pressed to find another time” U.S. ships have been this challenged in the region.
A separate U.S. official argued the administration was downplaying the seriousness of the situation in the Red Sea in order to avoid escalating tensions in a region that’s already on edge over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
“People are thinking this is an Israel thing, and because they are heavy-handed in Gaza no one is saying anything,” the official said. “The world should be condemning this.”
A second U.S. official said the intelligence community does not know whether the Carney was the target and that the administration has taken pains to stress that point because it is “trying to avoid unnecessary escalation.”
