Dramatic footage reportedly shows Yemeni Houthi rebels shooting down a US drone.

Yemeni civilians gather around the engine of a drone. Reuters. 

Yemeni Houthis have claimed that they have shot down a US surveillance drone. Reuters. The US has conducted surveillance on the conflict that involves the Sunni led government who is backed by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, and the Shiite led Houthi rebels who have the backing of Iran. The drone is reported to have been a MQ-9 Reaper. The drone was shot down around 11:00 AM local time in the capital of Sanaa and no casualties were reported. 

My Comment:

This story is a couple of days old but given all the other dramatic news stories that happened the past few days it got buried.  Normally having a drone being shot down in Yemen would be a top news story, not a footnote, but these are the times we are living in... 

It's fairly dramatic footage as well. That drone was pretty well destroyed by the Houthi rebel's missile. It spun in and crashed causing a major fire. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. It's pretty rare to see a US drone get shot down and for nothing else the videos are worth watching, though the 2nd one has an age restriction on it for some reason. 

I do have to say that the Houthi rebels seem to be suspiciously well armed. I wasn't able to determine what kind of weapon they used to down it, but I would put money on it being a shoulder launched missile, aka MANPADS. A Stinger or the Russian or Chinese equivalent. That's a lot of hardware for a rebel group. 

Of course the Houthis have always been well armed considering their status as a rebel group. They have SCUD launchers and have launched multiple ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia which is far beyond the capabilities of most rebel groups. 

With access to MANPADS and ballistic missiles one wonders if the Houthis are getting more help than people realize. They are sponsored by Iran but supposedly their supply lines have been cut off by the Saudis and their allies. Still, you would have though that the Houthis would have run out of weapons by now if they were just relying on weapons stolen from the Yemeni government.

I mention this everytime I cover a story out of Yemen, but it really is the forgotten war. We never hear much about the war there even though it's a major one involving regional players. We are also fairly involved trying to make sure that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS don't gain too much territory. We are also helping the Yemeni government and their Saudi allies spy on the Houthis which was probably what this drone was doing.