Two U.S. officials have denied the claim made by the Houthi group of Yemen on Saturday, that their forces attacked the U.S. aircraft carriers Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Red Sea. Two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that this claim was false.

In November, the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran and have launched missiles and drones on the main waterway for commerce in Gaza where Israel has been fighting a war of more than eight months.

In over 70 attacks, Houthis have destroyed two ships, captured another, and killed at minimum three seafarers. U.S. Warships have intercepted and hit Houthi targets in Yemen almost every day.

After the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the Eisenhower, that ended its deployment in the Red Sea Saturday, will briefly move to the Mediterranean Sea. It rushed into the area.

The Pentagon released a statement saying that the (Eisenhower) carrier strike group protected ships transiting through the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb, saved innocent mariners from unlawful attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis, and helped deter further aggressiveness.

The Pentagon has announced that the U.S. aircraft carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower will be heading to the Middle East after completing an exercise in the Pacific.

The Houthi group had earlier said that its forces attacked the Eisenhower at the Red Sea, and that the operation was a success. They did not elaborate. The group said they also attacked a Transworld Navigator commercial ship in the Arabian Sea. The group did not specify when the attacks occurred.

Houthi statements claimed that the Transworld Navigator was directly hit by a missile. (Reporting and editing by Cynthia Osterman, Rod Nickel, and Phil Stewart)