US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Victoria Nuzzi
The Houthi rebels shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen on Monday, two US officials confirmed to Business Insider.
It marks the second time since early November that the Houthis have managed to destroy a Reaper drone, and comes amid rising tensions between Western militaries and the Iran-backed rebels in the strategic Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis claimed to have shot down the Reaper above western Yemen with a surface-to-air missile, and published footage purporting to show the incident and the subsequent wreckage. The claims were not immediately confirmed, and the video could not be verified.
But the US officials on Tuesday said initial indications were that the Reaper was, in fact, shot down by the Houthis off the coast of Yemen early Monday morning local time. A Pentagon spokesperson said the rebels used a surface-to-air missile to take down the drone, which has not yet been recovered by the US.
Photo by Houthi Movement via Getty Images
The incident comes less than three months after the Houthis shot down an American Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen as the aircraft was flying through international airspace. The rebels also successfully downed an MQ-9 with a surface-to-air missile in June 2019.
Reaper drones can be well-armed with Hellfire missiles and precision bombs, and are capable of operating at high altitudes for long periods of time. The MQ-9, which costs around $30 million and has a wingspan over 20 feet longer than an F-15 Eagle, can be used to collect valuable intelligence and carry out high-level strikes for the US military.
The Reaper can loiter for as long as a day, giving its remote pilots the power to rapidly destroy land targets spotted with Hellfires. These capabilities make the Reaper useful in the US efforts to stop Houthi missiles before they fire at international shipping.
It's been a rough year for the Reaper. Over the past 12 months, Russian fighter jets have harassed and clipped the drones in Europe and the Middle East, breaking some of them and even causing others to crash — drawing frustration from the Pentagon.
Photo by Houthi Movement via Getty Images
The downed Reaper drone was not the only escalatory move by the Houthis over the past two days.
On Sunday evening local time, the rebels fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a commercial vessel, hitting it and causing damage, according to US Central Command, or CENTCOM. The incident forced the crew to issue a distress call, and they were taken to a nearby port by another commercial vessel.
Just a few hours later, on Monday, the Houthis fired more anti-ship ballistic missiles at a commercial vessel, causing minor damage. Later in the day, a one-way attack drone hit a merchant ship and caused minor damage, CENTCOM said in a Tuesday summary of the incidents.
