As US airstrikes continue to pound Yemen, the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, announced that its forces downed another US MQ-9 Reaper Drone that was flying over Yemeni territory.
“Our air defenses successfully shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone while it was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Maarib Governorate, using a suitable, locally made missile,” the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) said in a statement early Tuesday morning.
So far, there’s been no confirmation from the US military that it lost a drone. Since President Trump restarted the US bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15, the US military has shared virtually no details about its airstrikes or Houthi attacks on US warships and aircraft.
The YAF statement said that the incident marked the 16th US MQ-9 drone that’s been shot down by Houthi forces since October 2023. The US military has acknowledged it has lost several drones over Yemen but hasn’t confirmed each claim. Each MQ-9 Reaper drone costs the US about $30 million, so if the Houthis’ number is accurate, that means the US has lost $480 million worth of drones.
The YAF statement said that over the past few hours, the US had “launched a number of raids on various areas, resulting in martyrs, injuries, and damage to citizens’ properties.”
US airstrikes have been hitting Yemen every day since March 15, but the Houthis show no sign of backing down. President Trump has claimed his bombing campaign has been a “success” despite the repeated Houthi attacks on US warships and on Israel, which restarted once the US started bombing Yemen again.
Just a few hours before the Houthis announced they downed another US MQ-9, Trump claimed that the Yemeni group has “been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks” and threatened the situation would escalate if attacks from Yemen didn’t stop.
The message from the Houthis has been that they will meet US “escalation with escalation” and won’t stop unless there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory. “The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they will persist to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas and will continue to support the Palestinian people until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” the YAF statement said.
