Kerry said the USA was “very pleased” with their release and was working to resolve other hostage situations in Yemen and elsewhere.
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The latest incident came just two days after the United States military launched cruise missiles against three coastal radar sites in areas held by Houthi rebels in Yemen, in response to the two previous failed missile firings against the Mason. The officials said these sites were involved in the attacks. The destroyer USS Nitze and the USS Ponce, an afloat forward staging area ship, were close to the Mason at the time. United States ships have advanced radar and counter-measures they can deploy – commercial shipping don’t have such defences.
The ship had been attacked two times before in the past week, which triggered retaliatory strikes against radars used by Houthi rebels in those attacks.
“They have other capabilities we didn’t disable”. The U.S.’s “targeted-killing policy” and other practices by the Obama administration have raised serious concerns regarding the rule of law, war crimes and the human cost of the U.S. security policy in Yemen.
Since March 2015, they have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition that intervened militarily in Yemen to restore that government to power.
In recent months, however, Washington has become increasingly critical of Saudi Arabia’s conduct in the war.
The Sana’a bombing was not the first attack on civilians by Saudi jets as they have targeted busy markets, schools, weddings and hospitals over the past year, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.
Following the Baltimore commissioning ceremony of guided missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), Richardson confirmed some details on the apparent attack to reporters. Gary Ross said US ships launched countermeasures to defend against an apparent attack.
Officials said it wasn’t clear who was responsible for the attempts on the American vessels.
On Thursday, Iran deployed two warships to the Red Sea, but insisted the move was aimed at preventing piracy in the vital shipping lanes.
The missile launches were the third in about a week that targeted the destroyer USS Mason and other USA ships.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released two U.S. citizens.
A foreign ministry official told the broadcaster Oman had worked with Yemeni authorities in Sanaa to secure the Americans’ release.
Kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen is common in order to raise funds for terrorist or rebel groups or negotiate for the release of prisoners.
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Kerry would not identify the two Americans, who he said were freed on Saturday as part of complicated diplomatic arrangement that included airlifts for Yemenis wounded by an airstrike this past week by the Saudi-led coalition.
