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Yemen’s Houthis have shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 18th since the start of the war in Gaza, the military group said on Wednesday. “Our air defences shot down a US MQ-9 drone in the airspace of Al-Jawf province, using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile,” the group’s spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a televised statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
“This is the 18th US drone shot down by our air defenses since October 2023,” Sarea said, referring to the timeframe when his group began launching attacks against Israeli targets to show solidarity with Palestinians a few days after the outbreak of war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The last MQ-9 was reportedly shot down by the Houthi forces on Thursday over the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
This type of drone has become well-known to Yemenis because it has been hovering overhead across northern Yemeni provinces almost daily since October 2023, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We will continue to support the Palestinian people until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted,” the spokesperson said, vowing also to continue launching attacks against US warships in the northern Red Sea in response to the ongoing US airstrikes against Houthi positions.
The Houthi statement came a few hours after the US military conducted 50 airstrikes late Tuesday against Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Hodeidah, and the provinces of Marib, Dhamar, and Ibb, according to the Houthi television.
The death toll from Tuesday’s airstrikes on Hodeidah’s residential neighbourhood rose to six, including a pregnant woman, with 16 others wounded, mostly children and women, according to a statement by local health authorities.
On March 15, the US military resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in a bid to deter the group from targeting Israel, following the collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
