By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Suspected U.S. airstrikes around Yemen’s rebel-held capital killed at least seven people and wounded 29 overnight, the Houthis said Monday as they also claimed shooting down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Since its start nearly a month ago, the intense campaign of U.S. airstrikes under President Donald Trump targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters — related to the Israel-Hamas war — has killed over 120 people, according to casualty figures released Monday by the Houthis’ Health Ministry.
Footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed firefighters spraying water on a raging fire they described as being sparked by the airstrikes.
Rubble littered a street as rescuers carried one person away from the site, which the rebels claimed was a ceramics factory in the Bani Matar neighborhood of Sanaa, the capital. The Associated Press could not independently verify what was struck.
The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees American military operations, did not acknowledge the strikes. That follows a pattern for the command, which now has authorization from the White House to conduct strikes at will in the campaign that began March 15.
The American military also hasn’t been providing any information on targets hit. The White House has said over 200 strikes have been conducted so far.
Houthis claim another American drone shot down
The Houthis separately claimed Sunday night they shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, which sits to the northwest of the country on the Red Sea on the country’s border with Saudi Arabia.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, described the downing in a prerecorded video message as the fourth in two weeks by the rebels. Saree said the rebels targeted the drone with “a locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.
Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. They have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.
Central Command said it was aware of “reports” of the drone being shot down but did not elaborate.
US strikes come as part of monthlong intense campaign
An AP review has found the new U.S. operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than that under former President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The U.S. campaign shows no signs of stopping, as the Trump administration has also linked its airstrikes on the Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“What we’re doing with the Houthis and what we’re doing in the region, we’ve shown a capability to go far, to go deep and to go big,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday on Fox News. “We don’t want to do that. But if we have to, we will to prevent a nuclear bomb in Iran’s hands.”
Hegseth added: “We know Iran … is taking a look at what’s happening to the Houthis and realizing they don’t want any part of it.”
