³Û±ð³¾±ð²Ô’s Houthis claimed to have shot down an American drone in the centre of the country on Wednesday, hours after the US carried out in the capital.
In a , military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the group had downed an MQ-9 Reaper drone in Marib province that was "carrying out hostile activities" in the area.
This is the second time in four days that the group has claimed to have destroyed an American attack drone after reporting on Sunday that it had downed an unmanned aircraft in the central province of Al-Bayda.
Saree’s statement came less than 24 hours after the US launched a series of strikes on Houthi targets in the capital Sanaa and on the country’s Red Sea coast.
The US said on Tuesday that it had targeted weapons facilities, radar sites and a command and control centre in attacks condemned by the Iran-backed group as a "flagrant violation" of the country’s sovereignty.
The latest attacks come amid rising tensions between the Houthis and Israel, which have been engaged in tit-for-tat exchanges for more than a year over Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
In November 2023, the Houthis began targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea in an attempt to impose a maritime blockade on Israeli ports, and have launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel in a series of largely ineffective attacks.
Israel has twice intercepted Houthi missiles targeting Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv over the past week. It responded by bombing Sanaa airport and a number of Yemeni ports, and threatened to significantly escalate the conflict if the Houthis do not stop their attacks.
The Houthis have vowed to keep up their attacks until Israel agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas and end what prominent human rights groups say amounts to a genocidal military campaign against the Gazan population.