US Air Force strikes Houthi targets in Yemeni provinces, but loose

On April 1, the U.S. Air Force struck Houthi targets in Saada province in northwestern Yemen.

Five more airstrikes were carried out on Yemen's capital Sanaa, Caliber.Az reports, citing Arabic news sources.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Yahya Sari, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said the Houthis (Ansar Allah) shot down an American MQ-9 drone over the Marib region.

“Our air defense assets shot down an American MQ-9 drone flying over the Marib area with a locally produced missile,” Sari said.

According to the spokesman of the movement, this is already the 16th American drone shot down by the Houthis since the beginning of the escalation in the region following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Note that the cost of each drone is more than $30 million.

On March 31, Yemen's Ministry of Health and Environment announced that 15 citizens were killed and injured in US airstrikes on the capital and the provinces of Sanaa and Hadj.

​On March 15, 2025, the United States started initiating a series of air and naval strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, marking the largest U.S. military operation in the Middle East during President Donald Trump's second term. The campaign began with targeting radar systems, air defenses, and missile and drone facilities.

The U.S. government stated that these strikes aimed to neutralize the Houthi movement's capacity to threaten freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. President Trump emphasized that military actions would persist until the Houthis ceased their attacks on U.S. ships.

By Khagan Isayev