On December 31, 2023 local time, the container ship "Maersk Hangzhou" operated by Denmark and flying the Singaporean flag was attacked by four Yemeni Houthi armed boats in the Red Sea and sent out distress signals twice in less than 24 hours. Subsequently, the U.S. Central Command announced that the U.S. military had sent helicopters and sank three of the boats and killed some of the attackers, while the remaining one escaped.
But this incident immediately attracted widespread attention from international public opinion, because according to the New York Times, this was the first time since the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict in October 2023 that the US military cruising in the Red Sea exchanged fire with the Houthi armed forces in Yemen and directly killed its personnel. However, the Biden administration in the United States has previously stated that the United States does not want to engage in direct fighting with the Houthi armed forces in Yemen to avoid further deteriorating the situation in the Middle East.
Therefore, the US military's current move to directly kill Houthi armed personnel in the Red Sea has caused public opinion to speculate whether the White House policy has adjusted again and whether it will escalate the situation in the Middle East.
In response, according to CNN, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman of the White House, responded urgently that day. He said,
“The best-case scenario is that the Houthis stop these attacks (on merchant ships in the Red Sea),” he said.
Previously, the information given by the U.S. Central Command was that the U.S. military helicopters were originally intended to drive away the Houthi armed personnel who attacked the "Maersk Hangzhou" cargo ship, but were attacked by the latter and then fought back "out of self-defense."