The guided missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner shot down a drone fired from Yemen over the Red Sea early Wednesday, according to two U.S. defense officials.
Unlike an incident last month in which an American destroyer shot down multiple drones and missiles fired in the direction of Israel, this drone was fired directly at the USS Thomas Hudner.
Reuters was first to report the warship shot down the drone.
It's not clear yet who is responsible for launching the drone, but earlier this week, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen threatened to attack ships in the Red Sea.
The incident follows the Houthis' shoot-down of a US MQ-9 Reaper Drone last week over the Red Sea.
The U.S. did not launch a recovery effort for the roughly $30 million drone, and although the Houthis made an effort to salvage it, Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said it's unlikely they could "recover anything of significance."
The USS Thomas Hudner incident and the downing of the MQ-9 threaten a widening of the war between Israel and Hamas that the U.S. has been trying to contain.
Meanwhile, the United States has taken action against Iranian-backed groups in Syria in response to nearly 60 attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria over the past month. The U.S. has conducted three rounds of retaliatory strikes so far.
When questioned earlier this week about whether the Pentagon would retaliate for the downing of the MQ-9, Singh stated that there were no immediate announcements. However, she emphasized that the U.S. always maintains the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing.
