The United States has carried out fresh airstrikes on Yemen, targeting the northern governorate of Sa’ada.
Yemen’s Al-Masirah TV channel reported that U.S. fighter jets bombed the Kahlan region in Sa’ada governorate twice early on Saturday.
The media outlet did not report any casualties from the attack.
The U.S. launched intense airstrikes on Yemen in mid-March after the Arab country resumed its military operations against Israeli targets in an effort to pressure the regime to lift its siege of the Gaza Strip where an already dire humanitarian situation has been deteriorating.
Since then, the U.S. has been pounding Yemen on an almost daily basis to crush the military capabilities of the Yemeni armed forces.
On Friday night, CNN cited three American officials as saying that the military operation against Yemen has so far cost the U.S. $1 billion, but left limited impact on the Yemeni Armed Forces’ capabilities.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told CNN that the operation has used hundreds of millions of dollars in munitions for strikes against Yemen, including JASSM long-range cruise missiles, GPS-guided glide bombs, and Tomahawk missiles. The U.S. military is also using B-2 bombers out of the Diego Garcia airbase.
According to CNN, the U.S. military may request Congress to allocate additional funding for the offensive in Yemen.
The Pentagon has not yet disclosed the impact of the United States’ daily air raids on the Yemeni army. However, some military officials have acknowledged that the Yemeni Armed Forces are still capable of preserving their arms stockpiles underground.
“They’ve taken out some sites, but that hasn’t affected the Houthis’ ability to continue shooting at ships in the Red Sea or shooting down U.S. drones,” CNN quoted one of its interviewees, in reference to the Yemeni armed forces who are members of the Ansarullah Movement and are called Houthis by Western media and officials.
The Yemeni armed forces announced on Thursday that they had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone while it was conducting “a hostile mission” over Yemen’s airspace. According to the Yemeni army, it was the 17th MQ-9 drone that was downed since November 2023 when Yemen launched for the first time its pro-Gaza operations.
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