The Pentagon dismissed the Houthis’ claims that 10 drones had been shot down since last November.
The Pentagon has confirmed the loss of another MQ-9 Reaper drone near Yemen, following claims by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that they had downed multiple such aircraft in recent days.
“Yesterday, an MQ-9 did crash in the vicinity of Yemen. That is being investigated, but I don’t have any additional details to share,” Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder
told reporters at a Sept. 17 press briefing.
When asked about the Houthis’ claim that they had shot down 10 MQ-9s since last November, Ryder dismissed the number as “too high.”
Citing “operation security reasons,” Ryder declined to provide the exact number of drones, each costing around $30 million, lost in Yemen. But he emphasized that the Houthis’ figures were “not accurate.”
Since the Houthis seized Yemen’s northern territory and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has seen Reapers shot down in the war-torn country in 2017, 2019, 2023, and this year.
On Sept. 16, the Houthis released
videos showing the downing and what appears to be the burning wreckage of an MQ-9, with a propeller similar to those used by the armed drone visible in the flames. The U.S.-designated terrorist group claimed this was the third such drone it shot down over the past week, although the other two claims were not backed by similar videos or other evidence.
The State Department
designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization in January, following a series of attacks since November 2023 on commercial vessels in the busy Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping lanes—through which trillions of dollars in cargo pass each year. The designation also reflects the group’s attacks on military forces stationed in the region to protect commercial shipping.
The Houthis have described their maritime aggressions as acts of retaliation against Israel on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza, though many of their victims have no direct connection to the ongoing conflict.
One of the most recent and serious attacks in the Red Sea involved the MV Sounion, a Greek-owned and flagged tanker carrying about a million barrels of crude oil. On Aug. 21, the Houthi terrorists hit the ship with small arms, missiles, and an exploding drone boat before detonating explosives on board, sparking several fires.
The Sounion, abandoned by its crew, drifted for days in the Red Sea before being towed to safety under military escort. On Sept. 16, a European Union naval mission
announced on X that the salvage operation had successfully averted a potential oil spill, which could have had disastrous environmental consequences.
In a separate development, the Houthis, on Sept. 16, launched what they said was a hypersonic missile at central Israel. The Israeli military
said that the projectile “most likely fragmented in mid-air” and caused no injuries, though it
triggered air raid sirens and sent residents scrambling for shelter in the area of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
