Aden (Yemen), March 5 (IANS) Yemen’s Houthi forces have said that they successfully intercepted a US MQ-9 reconnaissance drone over the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
Yahya Sarea, the Houthi military spokesperson, said on Tuesday on the social media platform X that the drone was shot down while “violating Yemeni airspace and conducting hostile operations” in Hodeidah province, Xinhua news agency reported.
Sarea said it is the 15th aircraft neutralised by Houthi forces during what they term the “ongoing Battle of the Promised Liberation and the Sacred Jihad,” a campaign they describe as supporting Gaza and Lebanon.
No immediate comment was available from US military or diplomatic sources regarding the Houthi claim.
The Houthi group, which controls large swathes of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, has previously targeted vessels they say are linked to Israel in the Red Sea as support for Palestinians during the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has targeted the Houthis in Yemen five times during the ongoing conflict. The most recent strike occurred on January 10. The initial attack took place on July 20, 2023, followed by additional strikes on September 29, December 19 and December 26. The port of Hodeidah was repeatedly hit in these airstrikes.
Since November last year, the Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, has been conducting missile and drone attacks on what it said were “Israeli-linked” ships in regional waters and beyond, as well as targets in Israel, to show solidarity with Palestinians amid their conflict with Israelis in Gaza.
The group has escalated attacks since the end of September after Israel killed former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike in the southern suburb of Beirut.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against the Gaza-based Hamas terror group. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
In response, the Israeli military has launched airstrikes on Houthi sites in Yemen, while the US-British naval coalition stationed in the waters has been conducting sporadic air raids and strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group.
–IANS
int/khz
