YEMEN SHOOTS DOWN ADVANCED US DRONE, VOWS TO KEEP UP MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST ISRAEL

TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemen's Armed Forces announced shooting down of an advanced American drone as the aircraft was performing an operation in support of the Israeli regime.

The MQ-9 Reaper drone was brought down using a surface-to-air missile as the aircraft was flying in the airspace over Yemen's territorial waters, the Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday, Yemen's Al-Masirah television network reported.

The aircraft was struck while carrying out an "hostile espionage" operation within the framework of the United States' military support for the Israeli regime, the statement added.

"Yemen's Armed Forces lay emphasis on their legitimate right to defend the country and confront all hostile threats," said the Forces' Spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree.

"These hostile maneuvers do not serve to prevent the Yemeni Armed Forces from conducting military operations against the Zionist regime [of Israel] and in support of the Palestinian nation," he added.

A US official also confirmed an MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle of the United States was shot down on Wednesday off the coast of Yemen.

"We can confirm that a US military MQ-9 remotely-piloted aircraft was shot down today off the coast of Yemen by Houthi forces," official added.

Meanwhile, Ansarullah Spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam vowed to continue operations in support of the innocent people of the Gaza Strip until Israel ends its bloody onslaught on the besieged Palestinian territory.

“The downing of the American drone shows that our armed forces will continue their operations in support of Gaza until the Israeli acts of aggression stop,” he said.

Abdul-Salam also noted that the Yemeni armed forces had reaffirmed their readiness to counter all hostile maneuvers against Yemen’s national sovereignty by bringing down the American UAV over the country’s territorial waters.

Over the past month, the Yemeni Army has carried out several missile and drone strikes against Israeli targets in response to the occupying regime’s war crimes in Gaza.

The Prime Minister of Yemen’s National Salvation Government, Abdulaziz bin Habtour announced recently that Ansarullah fighters are “part of the Axis of Resistance” against Israel.

“It is one axis and there is coordination taking place, a joint operations room, and a joint command for all these operations,” he said, adding, “We cannot allow this arrogant Zionist enemy to kill our people.”

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group conducted Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 10,569 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 26,475 others.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

 

This article was published in Fars News Agency and its republished here under a creative commons license.