YEMEN’S armed forces targeted the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, they announced yesterday, in retaliation for US-UK air strikes on Yemen which had caused numerous casualties the previous day.

Yemen’s military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said: “In response to these crimes the missile force and the naval force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a joint military operation targeting the American aircraft carrier Eisenhower.”  

There are no reports of casualties on the US war vessel.

The attack followed joint British-United States air strikes in Yemen which killed at least 16 people and wounded 35 others.

US officials said the bombs hit a wide range of underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Yemeni vessel and other facilities. 

They called it a response to a recent surge in attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the Israel-Hamas war.

The Yemenis said yesterday’s attacks struck a building housing Hodeida Radio as well as civilian homes in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida. 

Yemen’s ruling Houthi organisation has stepped up attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, demanding that Israel end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, during which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 abducted.