As the one-year anniversary of the war in Gaza approaches, Houthis continue a campaign to target ships traveling through the Red Sea as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen.

The U.S. army said Houthis shot down the first Reaper on Sept. 10, and the second on Monday.

Online video showed the downing and the flaming wreckage on the ground afterward in Yemen's Dhamar province.

General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft has been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over Yemen for years.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, said authorities continue to investigate Monday's downing but declined to elaborate.

He claimed that an announcement by the Houthis that they shot down 10 Reapers since the start of their campaign in November over the Israeli war on Gaza was “not accurate."

However, he refused to provide the specific number. “For operation security reasons, I’m not going to be able to provide a specific number,” Ryder said.

Since Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has seen Reapers shot down in Yemen in 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024.

Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October.

They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. 

Those attacks include a barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea.