U.S. Navy helicopters obliterated three Houthi speedboats after the Iranian proxy group attacked a Danish merchant ship transiting the Red Sea.
The brief firefight occurred after U.S. military assets responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou. Attacks by Yemen's Houthis on commercial ships since the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip prompted the U.S. to create a task force to secure shipping lanes.
As the attack choppers swarmed the Houthi boats, the terrorists decided to open fire.
It was a fatal mistake, though the Biden administration made sure that any survivors weren't followed.
ABC News further reports:
Service members aboard the Navy helicopters returned fire and sank three of the four small boats, killing the crews, U.S. officials said. The fourth boat fled the area.
The U.S. does not seek to escalate the conflict, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on “Good Morning America” on Sunday.
“We don't seek a conflict wider in the region and we're not looking for a conflict with the Houthis,” Kirby told ABC News' Whit Johnson. “The best outcome here would be for the Houthis to stop these attacks as we have made clear over and over again.”
Sunday's incident was the second time in 24 hours that the Hangzhou had issued a distress call, U.S. Navy officials said.
A missile fired from Houthi territory hit the ship Saturday evening.
