Houthis Shoot Down MQ-9 Drone Over Yemen

A day after a Houthi missile breached Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, the Yemeni group shot down an MQ-9 high-altitude surveillance drone over the country's Dhamar province.

The Houthis shared footage of air defenses intercepting and shooting down an MQ-9, claiming it was “engaged in hostile activities within the airspace of Dhamar province.” The video captures the monitoring and tracking of the American aircraft, followed by the moment it was targeted by a surface-to-air missile, resulting in a direct hit that caused it to ignite and crash, Houthi’s official media channel Al-Masirah reported today.

The report claimed that the downed drone was the “10th since Yemen entered the battle of the promised victory and the sacred jihad in support of Gaza,” and the 14th since the start of the U.S.-Saudi aggression on Yemen ten years ago.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have been carrying out numerous strikes in the Palestinian territories since the conflict began in Gaza on October 7. Their most daring pro-Palestinian strike to date occurred on Sunday, when they attacked an Israeli military site in Tel Aviv with a new hypersonic ballistic missile.

Also on Sunday, the leader of the Houthi militant movement, Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, reiterated Yemen’s support for Palestinians, stating that "operations would continue until the Israeli regime ended the war and the siege."

Houthi forces have also been targeting Israeli ships and vessels heading toward or away from the occupied territories as a means of pressuring the regime to stop the war and lift the siege imposed on Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry, run by Hamas, reports over 41,110 deaths since the outbreak of the conflict on October 7, 2023.