The True Confidence bulk tanker that was attacked by the Houthis from the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah was not a US ship, the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a regular briefing for journalists on Wednesday, APA reports citing TASS.
"Today, the Houthis have killed innocent civilians by continuing their reckless attacks against international commercial shipping, which impacts countries throughout the world. The ship they attacked was a Barbados flagged Liberian owned one bulk carrier. It was not a US ship contrary to what the Houthis claimed," she said.
"These reckless attacks by the Iran backed Houthis have not only disrupted global trade and commerce but also taking the lives of international sea seafarers simply doing their jobs," Jean-Pierre said. According to her, the US "will call on governments around the world to do the same and join us in bringing to a halt these appalling attacks."
Speaking about what Washington would do if a US Navy ship was attacked, the White House press secretary assured: "You've seen us respond. When you saw three military members were killed not too long ago, you saw our response."
When asked whether the American side intends to more actively counteract the Houthis in light of what happened, Jean-Pierre replied: "The US obviously is going to continue to take action."
"We believe that we have been able to degrade their capabilities in the actions that we've taken over the past several weeks, several months," she added.
"We know that the strikes have indeed impacted on degrading their capabilities, and that's important. We have taken out significant amount of Houthi weapons, and our military's regularly destroying Houthi missiles and when they're being loaded and prepared to launch but before they can actually be fired at commercial ships," the White House press secretary said.
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