Houthi rebels are stepping up their maritime campaign of targeting vessels they claim to be connected to Israel and U.S. Navy^[1] warships are increasingly being caught in the crossfire, testing the limits of the Pentagon's claim it is successfully deterring further attacks in the Middle East.

U.S. Central Command announced^[2] on Sunday that the USS Carney responded to four attacks against three separate commercial vessels off the coast of Yemen and shot down drones. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday that "it's still important to understand and to focus on [the fact that] what's happening in Israel and within Gaza has not spread out into a wider regional conflict."

It was the fifth incident in the region in recent weeks where a Navy warship felt threatened enough to take the relatively rare step of firing its weapons, or encountered missiles flying in its vicinity. Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have said the attacks are aimed at Israel, which remains at war with Hamas amid a U.S. military buildup in the region to support the Israelis and deter expansion of the conflict.

Read Next: Air Force's Missileer Cancer Study Now Looking at 14 Different Cancers and Environmental Risks at Other Bases^[3]

Tensions in the Red Sea kicked off on Oct. 19 -- less than two weeks after Israel declared war on Hamas -- when the destroyer USS Carney detected and destroyed four land attack cruise missiles and 15 drones^[4] using its missiles and deck gun that were launched by the Houthis. The group is considered an Iranian-backed militia like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and smaller groups operating in Iraq and Syria.

It was not clear where the drones and missiles were headed, but officials in the Pentagon said they believed Israel to be the target.

The next incident didn't come until almost a month later on Nov. 15^[5] when the destroyer USS Hudner downed a drone coming from Yemen that came too close to it.

Then, just over a week later, on Nov. 26, the USS Mason responded to a distress call from a merchant ship under attack by individuals that Pentagon officials later said appear to be Somali. As the Mason was responding to the incident, missiles fired from Yemen landed about 10 miles from the ship^[6].

The next incident was just days later -- Nov. 29 -- when the Carney downed a drone heading in its direction. Then, just days after that incident, the Carney downed three more drones as it was responding to distress calls from merchant vessels under apparent missile attack.

The uptick in attacks, and the apparent targeting of merchant shipping, appears to be part of a concerted campaign by the Houthi rebels to target Israeli ships passing through the waterway that heads to the Suez Canal and then Israel.

In a statement reported^[7] by multiple outlets^[8], Houthi officials said^[9] that their forces will continue to "prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea and [Gulf of Aden] until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops."

"The Yemeni armed forces^[10] renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in this statement," Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the group, said.

Israeli officials speaking to reporters have not denied the connection outright.

Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, the Israeli Defense Forces international spokesman, told reporters last week that the merchant ships "have very minimal connection to Israel, if at all" and, instead framed the attacks as "terrorism against the freedom of navigation in the region."

The threat certainly appears to be felt on the decks of the Navy ships in the region.

Although Singh stressed that the Pentagon has no indications that either the drones or the missiles in any of the five incidents targeted Navy ships, self-defense was cited in every instance and a recent incident with an Iranian drone in the Persian Gulf underscores the threat ship commanders feel from the Houthi aircraft.

On Saturday, just a day before the Carney's last engagement with Houthi drones, U.S. Central Command released a picture^[11] of an Iranian drone flying in "an unsafe and unprofessional manner" within sight of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.

On Monday, Singh said that "just because something is unsafe and unprofessional doesn't always meet the threshold to feel the need to shoot it down."

"It's up to the discretion of the commander," Singh added, when asked about the different responses to similar drones. "They have the absolute right to make that decision and make that call when it is happening in that moment."

This position by the Pentagon -- that ships and sailors are not being targeted outright -- is also being used as a way to push back on the idea that the U.S. needs to retaliate against Yemeni forces.

Singh said the situation "certainly is something that is very concerning to us, something that we're going to continue to monitor" but stopped short of saying that there are plans to retaliate like the military has done several times in Syria and Iraq.

Retaliatory actions in Iraq, specifically, have drawn the ire of the country's prime minister. There were also two planned retaliations^[12] on weapons storage facilities in Syria.

"If we decide to take action against the Houthis, it will, of course, be at a time and place of our choosing," Singh said.

Related: Retaliatory US Airstrikes Are Starting to Raise Tensions and Draw Ire in Middle East^[13]

The Pentagon isn't tracking medical debt among troops despite federal recommendations that it should, and now Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel panel, wants to change that.

Warren has been pressing the Pentagon for an update on medical debt and wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in March asking about^[1] recommendations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, that called for better collection of the data to safeguard service members' financial stability and credit ratings.

But Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gil Cisneros sent back this response: The Pentagon doesn't collect data on the medical debt owed by service members and their families. Troops can self-report debt, he added, but "the data is not complete enough to accurately report the extent or amount" of the total medical debt held by personnel.

Read Next: Search for Military Personnel Continues After Osprey Crash Off Coast of Southern Japan^[2]

Cisneros said the Defense Health Agency -- the arm of the Pentagon that oversees the military's private health program, Tricare^[3] -- provides support through counselors and assistance officers to troops with medical claims and issues with debt collection when the bills should have been paid by Tricare.

The response vexed Warren, who underscored the importance of medical debt in a follow-up letter to Austin ^[4]Sunday. The debt can negatively affect military careers, hinder a service member from acquiring a security clearance and affect credit ratings -- preventing them from buying a house or a car or even renting a property.

Without the data, the DoD can't identify the issues that cause active-duty service members or their dependents to acquire such debt, especially when they have access to premium-free, no- or low-cost health care.

"This is why the CFPB's actions to remove medical debt from credit reports will make a real difference for service members and their families," Warren wrote.

Among the most common reasons service members rack up medical debt is when they are sent to specialists or other providers outside the military health system and these private providers incorrectly process their Tricare claims or simply send the bills directly to the service member.

Such was the case for Army^[5] Spc. Daysha Cartagena and her husband, Staff Sgt. Isaiah Cortez, who received bills totaling nearly $670,000 when their daughter was transferred from the military hospital at Fort Liberty^[6], North Carolina, to private facilities for advanced medical care in Raleigh.

Warren cited the couple, whose case was profiled in June on Military.com^[7], in her Dec. 3 letter to Austin.

"Given service members' frequent relocations, some service members may not discover these charges in a timely manner," Warren wrote.

A CFPB report published in June 2022 found that more than 5,000 troops and family members reported medical billing issues to the agency from 2018 to 2021. In 2021 alone, the CFPB received more than 1,500 complaints from service members about incorrect medical bills appearing on credit reports, according to the report.

About 54% of the complaints in 2021 were about attempts to collect medical debt the service members did not actually owe, according to the report.

Warren, who is largely credited for proposing the creation of the CFPB while she was a professor at Harvard University, told Austin in her Dec. 3 letter that she was disappointed that the DoD had failed to implement CFPB's recommendations in the year since the agency made them.

"In the [August] response, DoD claimed it would need to create a centralized reporting system or database in order to understand the full scope and impact of medical debt on service members. I urge DoD to develop such a system," she wrote.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Related: Agency Helping Protect Veterans from Predatory Lenders Endangered by Supreme Court Case, Advocates Warn^[8]

The Pentagon isn't tracking medical debt among troops despite federal recommendations that it should, and now Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel panel, wants to change that.

Warren has been pressing the Pentagon for an update on medical debt and wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in March asking about^[1] recommendations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, that called for better collection of the data to safeguard service members' financial stability and credit ratings.

But Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gil Cisneros sent back this response: The Pentagon doesn't collect data on the medical debt owed by service members and their families. Troops can self-report debt, he added, but "the data is not complete enough to accurately report the extent or amount" of the total medical debt held by personnel.

Read Next: Search for Military Personnel Continues After Osprey Crash Off Coast of Southern Japan^[2]

Cisneros said the Defense Health Agency -- the arm of the Pentagon that oversees the military's private health program, Tricare^[3] -- provides support through counselors and assistance officers to troops with medical claims and issues with debt collection when the bills should have been paid by Tricare.

The response vexed Warren, who underscored the importance of medical debt in a follow-up letter to Austin ^[4]Sunday. The debt can negatively affect military careers, hinder a service member from acquiring a security clearance and affect credit ratings -- preventing them from buying a house or a car or even renting a property.

Without the data, the DoD can't identify the issues that cause active-duty service members or their dependents to acquire such debt, especially when they have access to premium-free, no- or low-cost health care.

"This is why the CFPB's actions to remove medical debt from credit reports will make a real difference for service members and their families," Warren wrote.

Among the most common reasons service members rack up medical debt is when they are sent to specialists or other providers outside the military health system and these private providers incorrectly process their Tricare claims or simply send the bills directly to the service member.

Such was the case for Army^[5] Spc. Daysha Cartagena and her husband, Staff Sgt. Isaiah Cortez, who received bills totaling nearly $670,000 when their daughter was transferred from the military hospital at Fort Liberty^[6], North Carolina, to private facilities for advanced medical care in Raleigh.

Warren cited the couple, whose case was profiled in June on Military.com^[7], in her Dec. 3 letter to Austin.

"Given service members' frequent relocations, some service members may not discover these charges in a timely manner," Warren wrote.

A CFPB report published in June 2022 found that more than 5,000 troops and family members reported medical billing issues to the agency from 2018 to 2021. In 2021 alone, the CFPB received more than 1,500 complaints from service members about incorrect medical bills appearing on credit reports, according to the report.

About 54% of the complaints in 2021 were about attempts to collect medical debt the service members did not actually owe, according to the report.

Warren, who is largely credited for proposing the creation of the CFPB while she was a professor at Harvard University, told Austin in her Dec. 3 letter that she was disappointed that the DoD had failed to implement CFPB's recommendations in the year since the agency made them.

"In the [August] response, DoD claimed it would need to create a centralized reporting system or database in order to understand the full scope and impact of medical debt on service members. I urge DoD to develop such a system," she wrote.

In addition to Warren, the letter to Austin was signed by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Related: Agency Helping Protect Veterans from Predatory Lenders Endangered by Supreme Court Case, Advocates Warn^[8]