Alleged missile attack on USS Mason

False-flag attack?

 * Yemen's Houthi movement denies attack on U.S. warship: official - Reuters, October 10, 2016
 * ''"(The Houthi movement) denies targeting any ship off Yemeni waters," a Houthi official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 * New Gulf of Tonkin Incident? US Destroyer 'Attacked Off Yemen Coast'
 * ''To the naked eye, the alleged attack on the USS Mason bears an eerie superficial resemblance to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the August 1964 'attack' on the USS Maddox (since proven to have been a false flag operation) which gave US President Lyndon Johnson Congressional authorization to begin military operations against Vietnam.
 * مصدر عسكري ينفي استهداف القوة الصاروخية لأي بارجة قبالة السواحل اليمنية (Military source denies targeting any warship off the Yemeni coast with missile) - SABA, October 10, 2016
 * tweet by LDDC_info "False Flag 2. This is the 2nd time that Mason has been the subject of hostile fire in a period of 3 days, without being hit, however."
 * tweet by Open Source Intel "Tonkin Gulf redux? US Ship Fired 3 Missiles "to Defend Itself" #Houthis #Saudi #Iran #falseflag #WWIII" (links to South Front article)
 * Tweet by Shamira "@michaelharrisdr @LibertyNews1776 what's this # Mason doing there? To provoke war ... For False flag op just like the USS Liberty"
 * Who done what? - Col. Lang, Sic Semper Tyrannis, October 13, 2016
 * ''So, why did the CO of USS Mason not react more forcefully DURING the attack?
 * According to an English-language summary by Haykal Bafana of a statement by ex-President Saleh, the attacks were done by AQ fighters/mercenaries who had returned from Syria to Aden recently, and then deployed to Bab al Mandab on behalf of the Saudis to drag the US into the war. According to the statement from October 13, the US was informed (by Saleh) beforehand about these returning fighters and their intentions through diplomatic and private channels.

Saudi missile attack

 * Jennifer #IAmYemen ‏@teddy_cat1 on Twitter, October 12, 2016
 * Few hours before Reuter's announcement of a U.S. Navy destroyer came under missile attack off Yemen on Sunday, Saudi official accounts on tweeter like Journalist Fahd Kamely and Saudi-24 News had tweeted that the Royal Saudi Naval Forces targeted what they thought to be an Iranian ship for suspicion of supplying Houthis with weapons! They immediately deleted their tweets following this announcement, but many people have saved a picture for those tweets before being deleted and since then are circulating them on tweeter... (via PavewayiV)

Reactions

 * US swears revenge on Houthis for attack on warships, Al Masdar News, October 11, 2016


 * “Counterstrike, retaliatory strike: I can tell you that those things are things that we are looking at,” Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Tuesday. “We want very much to get to the bottom of what happened,” said Davis. “We're going to find out who did this and we will take action accordingly.” “We will make sure that anybody who interferes with freedom of navigation and puts US Navy ship at risk understands they do so at their own peril,” he stated.

US attack

 * Pay-back strike on the radar: US hit Yemen after the attacks on the destroyer - RIA, October 13, 2016 (in Russian)
 * ''The US military attacked a radar station in Yemen, the attack was a response to attacks on US destroyers in the Red Sea.
 * U.S. military strikes Yemen after missile attacks on U.S. Navy ship - Reuters, October 13, 2016
 * ''The U.S. military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces, retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials said.
 * ‘Limited self-defense strikes’: US military destroys 3 ‘radar sites’ in Yemen - RT, October 13, 2016
 * ''The attack on coastal targets was carried out by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the destroyer USS Nitze, NPR reported. According to US officials all targets were “in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage.”
 * ''“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” the statement reads.
 * US uses tomahawk cruise missiles to attack Houthis in Yemen - Al Masdar News, October 13, 2016
 * ''According to the official media wing of the Houthi forces, the U.S. Navy fired three tomahawk cruise missiles at their radar sites, confirming what the Pentagon reported on Thursday morning.
 * ''No casualties have been reported by the Houthi forces as of yet.
 * US Military Strikes Targets in Houthi-Controlled Areas of Yemen - SouthFront, October 13, 2016

Continued attacks?

 * ‘Limited & proportionate’: Obama vows to continue ‘self-defense’ strikes in Yemen - RT, October 15, 2016

US spin

 * America’s Hot Proxy War with Iran - Max Boot, Commentary Magazine, October 13, 2016
 * This Could Be Why Rebel Missiles Keep Missing U.S. Warships - Robert Bateman, Esquire, October 13, 2016

Context

 * The Yemen Crisis and the Bab el-Mandeb Maritime Chokepoint - Saudi-US Relations Information Service, April 14, 2015