The attack on the ships was the latest in months of violence in the region by the Yemen rebels, who are backed by Iran and have targeted commercial shipping as well as the U.S. naval forces deployed to the region.

For more than a year, U.S. warships have shot down Houthi drones and missiles, but the rebels continue to menace shipping in the Red Sea.

A multiple-missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels on two US warships has been thwarted, the Pentagon has said. At least eight drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles were aimed at the USS Stockdale and the USS Spruance on Monday.

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted two U.S. Navy warships with multiple drones and missiles as they were traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but the attacks were not successful, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

Houthi rebels used missiles and drones to attack the American aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. They also reportedly struck two American destroyers in the Red Sea, according to a military representative of the radical organization,