Jon Gambrell
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 traveling 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 $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.
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