Yemen Downs Two Advanced U.S. Drones in 24 Hours

Date: 19 April 2025 - 23:16

News ID: ۱۳۸۶۷۸

SANAA (Dispatches) --
Yemen’s military said Saturday it shot down another U.S.-made MQ-9 drone over Sanaa province.
“The drone was shot down, using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile,” military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Al-Masirah TV.
“This is the second drone our air defenses had successfully shot down in 24 hours ... and the 21st we had downed since November 2023,” he said.
According to Al-Masirah TV, a video footage of the drone would be broadcast later in the day.
Sarea affirmed Yemen’s support for the Palestinians, saying its operations will continue “until the Israeli aggression on Gaza stops and the siege on it is lifted.”
On Friday, Sarea said Yemeni forces shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone, the 20th it had downed since November 2023.
The U.S. side has not commented on the claims yet.
The United States resumed airstrikes on Yemen on March 15, after the country’s armed forces announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli targets, citing the Zionist regime’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.
Earlier on Saturday, the U.S. army launched 29 fresh airstrikes on northern Yemen, while Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, head of the Ansarullah Revolutionary Committee, vowed to retaliate.
On Thursday, Ansarallah leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said U.S. forces have carried out 900 airstrikes against Yemen since resuming Washington’s illegal war in mid-March, while the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) have launched 78 missile and drone attacks against Israel and a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Red Sea during the same period.
“The military operations carried out by his forces against U.S. forces in the Red Sea and around the aircraft carrier Truman have achieved qualitative results and have disrupted U.S. movements in the region,” Houthi said.
He added that the U.S. has been forced to rely more heavily on a military base in the Indian Ocean, 4,000 kilometers from the combat zone.
Houthi said 33 of the operations specifically targeted the Truman and its escort ships, using 122 ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.
The Ansarallah leader affirmed that attacks on Israeli sites, including Jaffa and Ashkelon, would continue. He described the YAF’s campaign as a legitimate response to Israeli actions in Gaza and U.S. complicity in the “starvation of the Palestinian people.”
Pentagon officials acknowledge that while some of the Yemeni leadership and military sites have been targeted, Yemen retains significant weapons stockpiles and fortified bunkers.
The U.S. military is becoming “increasingly concerned” that it will soon need to relocate long-range precision munitions from the Asia-Pacific region, due to the large amounts of weaponry Washington is burning through in its war on Yemen, according to the New York Times (NYT).
Sources who spoke to CNN say it has cost nearly $1 billion in under three weeks.
The onslaught has relied on expensive precision munitions like Tomahawk missiles, JASSMs, JSOWs, B-2 bombers from the Diego Garcia base, and additional aircraft carriers and fighter jets. Despite this, the YAF continues to launch ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, while continuing to down U.S. MQ-9 advanced drones – each carrying a price tag of $30 million.