Does a video show the aftermath of a Houthi missile strike on the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier in June 2024? No, that's not true: The video is from 2020 and shows a smoking fire on the naval vessel USS Bonhomme Richard at the Navy's base in San Diego. The incident was widely reported at the time by major news outlets. A spokesperson for the Department of Defense told Lead Stories that they had not heard any reporting of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower being hit by Houthis missiles and that the claim was "100 percent false."
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on June 1, 2024. It opened:
America aircraft carrier has been dealt an irreparable blow in the red sea by the Houthis (Ansar Allah). The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was struck in a precision strike by Dozen Anti Ship Ballistic missile! Which led major fire!
#Houthis
#Uplands
#A101Boykot
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 17:45:40 2024 UTC)
The post on X does not identify the source of the video, but using a screenshot from the 27-second video a search on Google yields multiple news reports with similar footage. A video report on ABC News (archived here) shows footage of the fire that broke out on the USS Bonhomme Richard on July 12, 2020. It contained the following details:
A fire broke out aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard sometime around 8:30 a.m. local time, said officials with the Naval Surface Forces. The blaze escalated to a three-alarm fire, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, which assisted in battling the fire along with base and shipboard firefighting teams.
While Lead Stories could not determine the origin of the video, a screenshot at 18 seconds into the video on X shows the ship's conning towers, which appears to match footage of the USS Bonhomme Richard that was posted on Fox News (archived here) and other news outlets.
A post on Facebook dated July 12, 2020, from a self-described personal blog has the same 27-second video as the one posted on X, with the details:
The fire spreads through the USS Bonhomme Richard, an American landing ship, at a base in San Diego. Specialists still can not localize the fire. The injured are already 11. Up to 200 sailors can remain on the ship.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 17:59:16 2024 UTC)
Military response
Lead Stories reached out to military officials for response to the June 1, 2024, claim on X. An email from the Department of Defense on June 4, 2024, stated the claim was "100% false."
And a defense official told Lead Stories via telephone on June 4, 2024, "We have no operational reporting to confirm the Houthis claim that they struck the USS Eisenhower."
As Business Insider reported on May 31, 2024, the Houthis claimed that they struck the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea with missiles:
The Houthis' claim that they struck a US aircraft carrier in the Red Sea with missiles is untrue, according to a US defense official.
The missile attack on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was alleged by the Iranian-backed military group's spokesperson Yahya Saree on Friday. Saree claimed the ship was targeted in response to US and UK strikes in Yemen on Thursday.
Lead Stories also debunked a claim that an image in a social media post showed a purported Houthi missile strike against the USS Eisenhower In June 2024 -- the image is a screenshot from the video game Arma 3.
Other fact check agencies have previously reviewed this claim, including Newsweek and AFP Fact Check.
