Suspected U.S. airstrikes kill at least 6 people in Yemen, Houthi rebels say

DUBAI — Suspected U.S. airstrikes around Yemen’s rebel-held capital killed at least six people and wounded 30 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 Trump administration’s intense campaign of airstrikes targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters — related to the Israel-Hamas war — has killed more than 120 people, according to casualty figures released Monday by the Houthis’ Health Ministry.

Video aired by the Houthis’ Al Masirah satellite news channel showed firefighters spraying water on a blaze they described as being sparked by the airstrikes. Rubble littered a street as rescuers carried one person away from the site, which the rebels said was a ceramics factory in the Bani Matar neighborhood of Sanaa, the capital.

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 more than 200 strikes have been conducted so far.

Houthis say another American drone shot down

The Houthis also said Sunday night that they shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, in the northwest of the country bordering Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea coast.

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 Houthis despite a United Nations arms embargo.

General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet and remain in the air for more than 30 hours. They have been flown by 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.

An expanded military campaign

An AP review has found that the new U.S. operation against the Houthis under President Trump appears more extensive than that under former President Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and bombing cities.

The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to resume targeting Israeli ships over Israel’s blocking of aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted, some of which have had little or no connection to Israel.

The Houthis used missiles and drones to target more than 100 merchant vessels, 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.

Gambrell writes for the Associated Press.