White House: Missile from Houthi Territory May Have Been Targeting Civilian Ship, Not U.S., We’ve Sent ‘Strong’ Signal

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said a missile launch from Houthi-controlled territory towards the U.S.S. Mason may not have been an attack on the Mason and “could have been the civilian merchant vessel that the Mason was helping at some distance away from her at that point that was the target.” And “We’ve sent a strong message through retaliatory strikes of our own that we’re going to do what we have to do to protect our troops in Iraq and Syria and in the region.”

Host Martha MacCallum asked, [relevant exchange begins around 7:45] “74 attacks now, another one just today. You saw the attack that fell just a couple of miles short of the U.S.S. Mason. It’s quite clear that Iran-sympathetic proxies, whatever you want to call it, are escalating these attacks against American and Israeli interests in the region. So, what is our response to that? And what we’ve done so far has not worked, because it’s getting more intense by the day, John.”

Kirby responded, “A couple of thoughts on this, Martha, if you’ll indulge me: First of all, we’re not sure whether it was more than one missile fired by the Houthis. Regardless, it fell, they fell some ten miles away from the Mason. So, it wasn’t exactly close to the Mason. In fact, it’s not exactly clear to us, Martha, that the Mason was even the target of those missile launches. It could have been the civilian merchant vessel that the Mason was helping at some distance away from her at that point that was the target.”

Kirby continued, “Nevertheless, and I know the bigger point of your question is these continued attacks on our facilities in Iraq and Syria. We’re not going to telegraph our punches. We’ve sent a strong message through retaliatory strikes of our own that we’re going to do what we have to do to protect our troops in Iraq and Syria and in the region. We’ve added to the force posture. The Mason is part of the Eisenhower Strike Group that the president ordered into the region. And we’ve added air and defense capabilities as well as aviation squadrons. We have the tools and capabilities to protect our interests, and we’ll do that. And the message to any other actor, be it a nation-state like Iran or a terrorist group or a group like the Houthis, that we’ll do what we have to do to protect ourselves.”

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