The USS Carney -- a Naval destroyer of ours that patrols the region -- was bombarded with missiles and drones over the course of 5 hours Sunday, but appears to have fought off much of (if not all) of the incoming fire ... this according to Pentagon officials.

There were accompanying commercial ships that were traversing the Red Sea alongside Carney -- and reports say some of those might've been hit during the cross fire.

None of those commercial ships are American, but some are said to have British and Israeli ties ... allies of the U.S. Government officials say Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility, although the rebels didn't specifically ID Carney as a target. Still, it appears the warship was caught up in it all ... at this point, no casualties have been reported.

The Houthi militia stand in solidarity with Hamas and are warning vessels that they believe come from Israel to stay out of the area -- and claim the ships that were attacked Sunday failed to heed their commands and evacuate the space.

Obviously, this comes on the heels of the end of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel last week -- with the IDF now continuing their campaign in Gaza to secure hostages.

It's unclear how the U.S. will respond to the Houthi aggression -- but it goes without saying ... attacking an American warship could easily result in an escalation of tensions on our end.