Yemen's Houthi Rebels Claim Downing Another US MQ-9 Reaper Attack Drone

SANNA: Houthi military spokesperson Yayha Saree said on Tuesday that Yemen's air defence systems have shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper over Saada province. "The US drone was shot down when it was spying and taking hostile measures over Saada in northwest Yemen", Saree was quoted as saying by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

Saree went on to say that the US drone was the second the Yemeni forces have downed during the past 72 hours. The Yemeni spokesperson also hailed the anti-Israel operation carried out by Maher al-Jazi, the 39-year-old Jordanian citizen who had killed three Israelis at the border crossing between West Bank and Jordan on Sunday.

Saree noted that Yemen will continue its military operations against Israel until the regime ceases aggression against Gaza and lifts the siege of the Strip. From the outset of the war in Gaza, the resistance groups in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Yemen have been carrying out anti-Israel operations in support of the Palestinian people and in order to reduce pressure on the "resistance" in Gaza.

On September 4, the US Central Command said that its naval forces had destroyed a missile system of the Houthi group in Yemen. "In the past 24 hours, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed an Iranian-backed Houthi missile system in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen," it said in a post on social media platform X.

"It was determined this system presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region," it said without providing further details. This was the third Houthi missile system destroyed by the US military strikes over the past two days, according to the USCENTCOM.

Meanwhile, residents in the Yemeni central province of Ibb reported on social media platforms that a fighter jet launched an airstrike targeting the Houthi-controlled Al-Hamzah military installation in the province on Tuesday. The Houthi group, which controls Ibb and several other northern provinces, including the capital, Sanaa, did not comment on the incident.

The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks targeting what it called "Israel-linked" ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November last year to show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In response, the US-British naval coalition stationed in the waters has since January, conducted regular air raids and missile strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group.