Yemen’s Houthis claim to shoot down 2nd U.S. MQ-9 drone

SANAA: The Houthi group on Tuesday claimed that they had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone in northern Yemen, while the U.S. military said it had destroyed two Houthi missile systems.

“We shot down an American MQ-9 drone while it was carrying out hostile, espionage and combat operations in the airspace of the province of Saada,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV.

“This is the second U.S. drone we downed in less than 72 hours,” he said. The Houthis shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone on Saturday over the central province of Marib, the group announced in an earlier statement.

“This is the ninth drone of the same type we have shot down since October last year,” he said, vowing that his group would continue to launch more attacks against what he said “Israeli-linked” ships.

So far, there has been no comment from the U.S. military on the Houthi claim.

Meanwhile, in a post earlier Tuesday on social media platform X, the U.S. military said it had destroyed two Houthi missile systems in northern Yemen.

“In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command forces successfully destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi missile systems and one support vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” it said, adding it also successfully destroyed a Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle over the Red Sea.

The Houthis and the U.S. military have been attacking each other since November last year, when the Houthis began launching anti-ship missiles and drone attacks on what they said were “Israeli-linked” cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since January, the U.S.-British naval coalition stationed in the region has conducted regular air raids and missile strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group.

-Xinhua