A US Navy warship interfered with three rockets launched from Yemen in what may have been an attack on Israel.
The USS Carney, a guided-missile destroyer was stationed in the northern Red Sea on Thursday, when it shot down three land attack cruise missiles and several drones.
There were no casualties to US forces and no civilian deaths reported.
Spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters: “This action was a demonstration of the air and missile defence architecture that we have built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilise whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests in this important region.
“Information about these engagements is still being processed, we cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting but they were launched from Yemen, heading north along the Red Sea – potentially towards targets in Israel.
“Our defensive response is one that we would have taken for any similar threat in that region, where we’re able to do so against our interests, personnel and partners.”
There has been an uptick in attacks on US forces since the conflict in Israel broke out on October 7, when Hamas militants attacked
On Wednesday, a drone hit US forces in Syria resulting in minor injuries, while another one was brought down.
During a false alarm at Al-Asad airbase in Iraq, a civilian contractor died from a cardiac arrest.
Earlier this week, US forces thwarted multiple drones targeting troops in Iraq.
On Thursday, drones and rockets targeted the Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, and multiple blasts were heard inside the base.
Rockets hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad's international airport, Iraqi police said on Thursday, without providing further details.
General Ryder said: "While I'm not going to forecast any potential responses to these attacks, I will say that we will take all necessary actions to defend U.S. and coalition forces against any threat”
"Any response, should one occur, will come at a time in a manner of our choosing.”
Israel has called up a record 360,000 reservists and has been bombarding the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip nonstop following Hamas' assault, which killed about 1,400 people - mostly civilians.
At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and 12,493 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the health ministry in Gaza said.
But Mr Ryder said he did not see a link between the rise in attacks and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
"At this point, again, the information that we have does not show a direct connection to the Hamas attacks on October 7," he said.
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighboring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.
In Iraq, tension over the war in Gaza had already been high. Its top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week condemned Israel and called on the world to stand up to the "terrible brutality" in besieged Gaza.
Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran, accused the United States of supporting Israel in "killing innocent people" and said it should leave Iraq.
In past years, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq regularly targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and the US embassy in Baghdad with rockets. Such attacks had abated under a truce in place since last year, and Iraq has had a period of relative calm.
