Yemen shoots down US MQ-9 reaper drone over al-Hodeidah
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The Yemeni Armed Forces announce shooting down an American MQ-9 drone over the western city of al-Hodeidah.
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Screengrab from a video published by the Yemeni Military Media depicting an MQ-9 Reaper drone the moment it was shot down by the Yemeni Armed Forces (Yemeni Military Media)
The spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier-General Yahya Saree announced the downing of an American MQ-9 drone over al-Hodeidah district.
Since November 2023, the YAF have downed 15 American-made MQ-9 drones. Each drone costs over $30 million.
The last drone shot down over Yemen came on January 1, 2025, when the YAF announced they had successfully shot down an American MQ-9 drone with a locally made surface-to-air missile while it was conducting hostile missions in the skies over the province of Marib.
In a statement, Saree confirmed that this drone is the second of its kind to be successfully downed by Yemeni air defenses in 72 hours, and the 14th drone since the launch of the support front in defense of the Gaza Strip and Palestine.
Saree emphasized that this operation comes "as a victory for the suffering of the Palestinian people and their fighters and as part of the response to the American-British aggression against Yemen."
