US Navy vessel shoots down Houthi drone in Red Sea

US Navy vessel shoots down Houthi drone in Red Sea

A U.S. Navy vessel opened fire on and shot down a drone operated by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Wednesday.

The area has seen heigtened tensions in recent weeks as Iran proxies attack both U.S. Navy ships and international trading vessels. The U.S. has sought to prevent Israel's war against Hamas from spreading into a wider conflict. The USS Mason was operating in the Red Sea at the time of the incident.

“It was close enough that they made that judgment call," a source told Fox News Digital, saying it was not clear that the Mason was the target of an attack.