Yemen’s Houthis claim attack on Israeli airbase, downing of US MQ-9 drone

Yemen’s Houthi group said it launched a “ballistic missile” toward Negev Airbase in Israel and shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen’s Al-Jawf province.

“In support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, we carried out a qualitative military operation targeting the Negev Airbase with a hypersonic ballistic missile, and the missile reached its target,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

In the same statement, Sarea said, “Our air defences succeeded in shooting down an American MQ-9 drone, which was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Al-Jawf province at dawn today, Friday.”

“The downing of this drone brings the total number of the same type of drones that we have shot down since November 2023 to 12,” he added.

“We will continue to support the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples by continuing to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy (in the Red Sea),” Sarea said, adding that the group’s military operations “will not stop until the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon stops.”

There has been no comment yet from the Israeli side regarding the missile attack, nor any response from the US military over the alleged downing, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, al-Masirah TV reported that the US-British coalition launched two airstrikes on the Hodeidah province in Yemen, which the alliance has not yet confirmed.

Since November last year, the Houthi group, which controls much of 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.

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.