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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Friday claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated on-line of what seemed to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. The U.S. navy didn’t instantly acknowledge the incident.
If confirmed, this is able to be yet one more Reaper downed by the Houthis as they press their marketing campaign over the Israel-Hamas struggle within the Gaza Strip.
Houthi navy spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as “finishing up hostile actions” in Yemen’s Marib province, which stays held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally acknowledged authorities.
The Houthis later launched footage they claimed confirmed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at evening, together with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A person, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently stop identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: “God is the best; demise to America; demise to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
On-line video confirmed wreckage resembling the items of the Reaper on the bottom, in addition to footage of that wreckage on hearth.
The U.S. navy stated it was conscious of the studies, with out elaborating.
Whereas the rebels have made claims about assaults that turned out later to not be true, they’ve a historical past of capturing down U.S. drones and have been armed by their primary benefactor, Iran, with weapons able to high-altitude assault.
Because the Houthis seized the nation’s north and its capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the U.S. navy has beforehand misplaced at the very least 5 drones to the rebels.
Reapers, which price round $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes as much as 50,000 toes and have an endurance of as much as 24 hours earlier than needing to land.
The drone shootdown comes because the Houthis launch assaults on transport within the Purple Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the struggle in Gaza, which has killed greater than 34,000 Palestinians there. The struggle started after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 individuals and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched greater than 50 assaults on transport, seized one vessel and sunk one other since November, in line with the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi assaults have dropped in latest weeks because the rebels have been focused by a U.S.-led airstrike marketing campaign in Yemen. Transport via the Purple Sea and Gulf of Aden nonetheless stays low due to the menace, nevertheless.
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This story has been corrected to offer the identify of the drone as Reaper, as a substitute of Predator.
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