Yemeni Houthis Seem To Have Shot Down a 31 Million Dollar US Drone

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on May 17 claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated online of what appeared to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. A vessel also came under attack in the Red Sea early the next day.

The two incidents likely represent just the latest attacks by the Houthis as they press their campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on May 16 with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as “carrying out hostile actions” in Yemen’s Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government.

The Houthis later released footage they claimed showed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at night, along with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A man, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently prevent identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

Online video showed wreckage resembling the pieces of the Reaper on the ground, as well as footage of that wreckage on fire.