Alleged missile attack on USS Mason

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USS Mason VBSS team receive a fish from a Yemeni fishermen
USS Mason (DDG-87)
The ex-US HSV-2 Swift of the Emirati was destroyed by the Yemeni army navy using a Chinese C-802 missile on October 5, 2016
It is better to just take a screenshot before the story changes...
استهداف مدمرة ايرانية أثناء تزويدها للحوثيين بأسلحة مضادة للدروع
Translation: Targeting Iranian destroyer supplying anti-tank weapons to Houthis
Screenshot of @Akhbaar24 tweet. bit.XXX.ly/2e6xLA leads nowhere.
القوات البحرية الملكية تستهدف تهدد سفينة ايرانية أثناء محاولتها تزويد الحوثيين بأسلحة مضادة للدروع
Translation: Royal Navy aimed at threatening the Iranian ship during its attempt to supply Houthis with anti-tank weapons.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti

Sources

  • U.S. Navy ship targeted in failed missile attack from Yemen: U.S. - Reuters, October 10, 2016
  • Rockets fired from Yemen target US warship - The New Arab, October 10, 2016
    The attempted attack on the USS Mason, the US military said, occurred at 7pm local time on Sunday when the warship's radar picked up two inbound missiles during a one hour period in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.
    "Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. "There were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship."
  • USS Mason Fired 3 Missiles to Defend From Yemen Cruise Missiles Attack - Sam LaGrone, USNI News, October 11, 2016
  • U.S. sees mounting evidence of Houthi role in strike on U.S. warship - Reuters, October 12, 2016
    The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct a missile attack on the warship, said U.S. officials, who are not authorized to speak publicly because the investigation is ongoing.
    The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also "painted" the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Iran-aligned fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, said the officials.
  • U.S. Navy destroyer again targeted by missiles from Yemen: U.S. officials - Reuters, October 12, 2016
    The USS Mason, which was accompanied by the USS Ponce - an amphibious transport dock - fired defensive salvos in response to the missiles, neither of which hit the ship or caused any damage as it operated north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the officials said.
  • US destroyer again targeted by missile off Yemen - AFP, October 13, 2016
    The Mason was conducting routine operations in international waters off the Red Sea coast of Yemen, meaning it was at least 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) out to sea. The attack saw a "coastal defense cruise missile" fired from a Huthi-controlled area south of Al-Hudaydah, a US defense official said.
  • US Can't Say Who Launched Missiles from Yemen at Navy Ships - Richard Sisk, Military.com, October 13, 2016
    "We don't know who was pulling the trigger," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said, but the missiles were launched from "Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. Iran has played a role and been supportive of the Houthi rebels." The Houthis have denied carrying out the attacks.

Third Attack on the Mason

A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Saturday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, the third such incident in the past week, U.S. officials said.
Multiple surface-to-surface missiles were fired at the USS Mason sailing in international waters in the Red Sea but the warship used on-board countermeasures to defend itself and was not hit, one defense official said, citing initial information.
...
The Pentagon on Thursday stressed the limited nature of the strikes, aimed at radar that it suspected enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.

That was meant to stop them targeting US vessels again, but apparently it failed.

Note: most of the hundreds of comments say things like "pound the Houthis into the sand," "make them an example." A couple of good comments include:

Caustic(me): "Wow that USS Mason has the kind of bad luck previously displayed by the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy. The North Vietnamese, Yemenis, other poor countries on Wall (Street's hit) list, they always deny it, but Wall Street's forces are too smart for that."
"Actually I should say good luck - they get fired on repeatedly but never get hit. Huh! Suicidal hit-list regimes with no success. Let's go blow up some Yemeni funerals huh? Jingoism and saber rattling or carpet bombing, it's great fun! Let's all go in lockstep! Viva House of Saud!"
dg59 "Just so you know, since the Yahooze will never tell you..

The USS MASON is a Guided Missile Destroyer. It eats missiles for snackes. That's just what destroyers do!"

"It was designed, purposed, and equipped with multiple types of counter measures to stop and destroy and inbound missiles toward it or any of the other US vessels in the area."
Honey Badger don't care, and neither does the USS MASON!!!!!

False-flag attack?

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

“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

Continued attacks?

US spin

Analysis

Context