DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Monday they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over the country, with videos purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile striking it. The U.S. military acknowledged losing a drone.
The claimed attack comes as the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip approaches. The Houthis have targeted ships travelling through the Red Sea over the war as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen. That’s imperiled a waterway that typically sees US$1 trillion of trade pass through it, as well as crucial shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and Yemen.
The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes from the Israelis this weekend on the port city of Hodeida.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman, claimed the rebels shot down the MQ-9 in a prerecorded message aired Monday night, hours after video footage circulated online showing the purported missile striking the aircraft over Yemen’s Saada province. A single image online also appeared to show wreckage of the drone, with pieces resembling that of an MQ-9.
Later footage released by the Houthis showed rebels had piled up the drone’s electronics, likely to see what they can exploit from the wreckage. One piece appeared to be from an MK-82 bomb, which can be armed on a Reaper.
Responding to queries from The Associated Press, the U.S. military acknowledged an MQ-9 was “downed but we have nothing additional to provide.”
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 metres) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over Yemen for years.
Since Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has seen Reapers shot down in Yemen in 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024. The U.S. military acknowledged the Houthis shot down two MQ-9s in September.
Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Those attacks include a barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea. Salvagers have towed away the burning oil tanker, hoping to avoid a catastrophic leak of its 1 million barrels of oil on board. Firefighting efforts onboard the Sounion began last week and “the operation has proceeded with promising results as some fires are extinguished and other under control,” the Joint Maritime Information Center reported Monday.
The centre, overseen by the U.S. Navy, also acknowledged the last attack on a merchant ship by the Houthis came on Sept. 2, but the rebels remain a threat.
“Despite a drop in attacks against merchant vessels over the last two weeks, the Houthis have shown ability and willingness to target U.S. Navy assets and coalition partners,” the centre said.
The Houthis claimed an attack targeted American warships last week. The rebels fired more than a half dozen ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles and two drones at three U.S. ships that were travelling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but all were intercepted by the Navy destroyers, a U.S. official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet publicly released.