An American fighter plane is shot down by “friendly fire” over the Red Sea

The affected airplane has been a ‘F/A-18’ model aircraftwhich had taken off from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, and which was “fired and launched by mistake” by the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, part of the USS Harry S. Truman’s own strike group.

The incident occurred on Saturday morning, although CENTCOM did not make it public until late at night. Previously, this Saturday, the US Armed Forces had “deliberately” bombed a missile warehouse and a command center of the Houthi militias in Sana’athe capital of Yemen, in order to “hinder Houthi operations such as attacks against US Navy ships and merchant ships in the southern Red Sea, Bab al Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden.”

The Houthis, who have controlled the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other areas in the north and west of the country since 2015, have launchedor several attacks against Israeli territory and against ships with some type of Israeli connection as a result of the offensive unleashed against Gaza following the attacks carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Likewise, the rebels have attacked American and British ships and drones in response to the bombings by these countries against Yemen. Washington and London say they are acting to defend free navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed they were the ones who brought down the American F/A-18 fighter. The military spokesman for the rebels, Colonel Yahya Sarea, assured this Sunday that the shootdown was the result of an operation against the attack group led by the aircraft carrier ‘USS Harry S. Truman’ recently deployed in the area, carried out with eight missiles. cruise ship and 17 unmanned aircraft, according to a message from the spokesperson published on his X social network account.