USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is leaving the Red Sea waters, after it came under sustained retaliatory missile and drone attacks from Yemeni naval units last week, Press TV reported.
United States Naval Institute (USNI) said the Nimitz-class warship has entered the US 7th Fleet, departing West Asia without a carrier for just the second time in over a year.
The last time the US Navy left the region without a carrier strike group was in June, when USS Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the Mediterranean while USS Theodore Roosevelt made its way to the United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
The arrival of USS Theodore Roosevelt in June allowed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to leave West Asia after seven months.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group arrived in West Asia in August, joining the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group before the latter left in September.
USS Abraham Lincoln’s departure from the Red Sea waters comes after the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Sarea announced in a statement on November 12 that the country's naval units had carried out two major military operations against US warships in retaliation for American and British attacks on the country and in solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese nations amid Israeli aggression.
Yahya Sarea said the first operation targeted the American aircraft in the Arabian Sea with a number of cruise missiles and drones.
bd-pratidin/GR
