Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saari later said that the rebels “launched a military operation targeting an American ship” in the Gulf of Aden using “a certain number of suitable naval missiles”.
A source in the Houthi army and the Yemeni government told AFP that the rebels fired three missiles on Monday.
Centcom said an anti-ship ballistic missile launched earlier toward shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea failed in flight and crashed into the ground.
The incident in the Gulf of Aden, south of the Red Sea, came a day after US warplanes shot down a Houthi cruise missile targeting an American destroyer.
Attacks by and against the Houthis, part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran-aligned groups, have raised concerns about violence spilling over into the region from the Gaza war.
The Houthis say their attacks on Red Sea ships show solidarity with Gaza, where Iran-backed Hamas militants have been at war with Israel for more than three months.
About 12 percent of global trade normally passes through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea between southwest Yemen and Djibouti, but rebel attacks have forced most shipping to be diverted thousands of miles around Africa. .
On Monday, the US Transportation Department recommended that US-bound commercial vessels not enter the southern Red Sea, warning of a “high level of risk” from “potential retaliatory attacks”.