The United States has lost seven MQ-9 REAPER drones-$ 30 million each-in the Yemen region since mid-March, in air attacks on the Houthi rebels, an American official said on Monday.
• Read also: Drift from the United States to authoritarianism: “We are where Germany was in 1933”, notes a former American ambassador
“Seven MQ-9s have been killed since March 15,” said the American official on condition of anonymity, without specifying the cause of these losses, the most recent of which took place on April 22.
Used both for surveillance and attack, these drones represent a total value of approximately $ 210 million.
To these losses, was added on Monday that of a combat aircraft that dropped Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, in an accident that injured a sailor.
-The device, an F/A-18 E hunter from Boeing, cost $ 67 million in 2021.
The United States almost pounded the Yemeni Houthi rebels almost daily since March 15 to try to stop the threat they have weighing on merchant ships in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis, supported by Iran, said on Monday that American strikes had targeted a center for detention of migrants in Saadah, their stronghold in northern Yemen, killing 68 people among African migrants detained there.
These insurgents, which control large sides of Yemen, have targeted maritime navigation since the end of 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip devastated by the war between Hamas and Israel.
They also regularly claim missile shots directly on Israel, which says they intercept them.
