Alwaght- Previous claims by the US military about Yemeni missile attacks against its warship could be just a radar malfunction, Sputnik news site reported.
The US army carried out a series of attacks on radar sites in Yemen last Thursday, based on claims that its USS Mason was attacked by Yemeni army in the Red Sea. But new reports suggest that the American naval vessel may have suffered from a radar malfunction.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook declared such attacks on Yemen as crucial to safe operation of US military in the region but Navy officials have now expressed doubt that American vessels were ever in danger, suggesting that reports of incoming missiles may have been the result of faulty radar systems. A US defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said “We are aware of the reports and we are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed."
At the time many sources believed that the claims are in fact excuses for Washington to directly enter the war on Yemen after its ally, Saudi Arabia failed to make the country and its Ansarullah resistance movement surrender.
Referring to the news, the Anti-War news site writes the report "raises the possibility that the US warships are not only retaliating against the wrong people, but that there was nothing to retaliate against in the first place."
The anti-war activist David Swanson also elaborated on how the US exploits the "self-defense" concept as justification for invading foreign countries.
"With these harmless good intentions, the US had ships off the coast of Yemen, and someone [shot but missed] these ships, and they retaliated in a proper, proportionate, and thereby somehow supposedly legal, active self-defense," he said.
"This seems to be a new pattern in the US media speech, that the US is able now to defend itself no matter where it is or who it has invaded or what right it has to be there," he added.
The United States has been indirectly involved in the Yemen conflict from the start, providing weapons and intelligence to the Saudi government. "Even though what has happened in the last couple of days is certainly an escalation [of the Yemeni conflict], the United States was involved in this conflict for many months," Kristine Beckerle, a member of Human Rights Watch’s North Africa Division, told Sputnik.
"It’s an escalation, but it’s not a fundamental change in the standoff, which has already claimed the lives of more than 4,000 civilians," she added.
Saudi Arabia began its aggression on neighboring Yemen late on March 2015 in a bid to undermine Ansarullah resistance movement and restore power to its ally, Yemen's refuge president Mansur Hadi who is now based in Riyadh. However, Killing over 10,000 Yemenis and injuring many more as well as destroying the already-impoverished Arab state's infrastructures, Saudi regime has so far failed to reach any of its preset goals.
