On Tuesday night, US Central Command announced that the US military had shot down five Houthi unmanned attack drones sent from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
The one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by a warship and aircraft above the Red Sea, where tensions between Iranian-backed Houthis and the US military presence continue to simmer.
Central Command wrote that US forces determined the drones ‘presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and to the US Navy and coalition ships in the region.’
‘These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,’ concluded the message.
The USS Gravely Destroyer – a ship used by the military to shoot down enemy missiles
The news of the destroyed Houthi drones comes after last week the rebels released footage of what they claimed was a $30 million US drone they shot down above Yemen
The news out of the region comes after last week Houthi rebels released footage of what they claimed was a $30 million US drone they shot down above Yemen.
The drone was the second they’ve destroyed in a number of months.
Last week, the Houthis released video of a surface-to-air missile bringing down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Hodeida, a Yemeni port city occupied by the militant group on the Red Sea.
The footage included a video of men dragging pieces of debris from the water onto a beach.
Images of the debris, which included pieces that had writing in English and what seemed to be electrical equipment, appeared to correspond to known pieces of the Reaper drone, usually used in attack missions and surveillance flights.
The Pentagon later confirmed the Iran-backed terror regime had shot down the $30 million US aircraft.
Last November, the Pentagon also acknowledged the loss of an MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was shot down by the rebels over the Red Sea.
Since the Houthis seized Yemen’s northern territory and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the US military has lost at least four drones to attacks by the rebel group. Drones were lost in 2017, 2019, 2023, and now, this year.
In addition to the drone loss, the Houthis claimed an attack on the Sea Champion, a Greek-flagged, U.S.-owned bulk carrier full of grain bound for Aden, Yemen, carrying grain from Argentina.
A US fighter jet is catapulted off the flight deck of a US aircraft carrier in the Southern Red Sea
Last week, the Houthis also acknowledged the targeted attack of the bulk carrier ship Rubymar, which flies Belize flags, with two ballistic missiles. One struck the vessel.
The US and UK have, in recent weeks, carried out joint airstrikes against the rebels in order to quiet the attacks on commercial ships carrying, among other things, humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.
As a result of the ongoing threat in the Red Sea, the price of global shipping containers has jumped by more than 300 percent since November of last year.
The geopolitical chaos is therefore contributing directly to the rising costs of goods in Western nations.