NEW YORK, April 25. /TASS/. Over the past six weeks, Yemen’s Houthis have downed seven US Reaper drones worth a total of $200 million in what The Associated Press said is becoming the most dramatic cost to the United States of its campaign against the rebel group.
Three of the drones were downed over the past week alone, the news agency quoted Pentagon officials as saying. Another defense official said the increase in US strikes can add to the risk to the US Air Force’s aircraft.
While the defense officials suggested the Houthi militants’ targeting of drones flying over Yemen had improved, they said the US military campaign against the Ansar Allah movement had so far been running successfully. On Thursday, the Pentagon reported that the United States had struck more than 800 Houthi targets, destroying command-and-control facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities, weapons storage locations, and air defense systems as well as multiple Houthi fighters and leaders.
After escalation of the conflict in Gaza in 2023, the Houthis warned that they would shell Israel and would not allow ships associated with it to pass through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The attacks stopped after the introduction of a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave in mid-January. After the breakdown of the truce in early March, the rebels resumed attacks on Israeli ships in the Red Sea, and attempted to attack targets in the Jewish state with rockets.
On March 15, the United States, on orders from President Donald Trump, began massive strikes against the targets of Houthis that control about a third of Yemen’s territory. According to the Central Command of the US Armed Forces, the operation is aimed at protecting American interests and ensuring freedom of navigation The Houthis responded with a spate of missile and drone attacks on the US aircraft carrier Harry Truman in the Red Sea.