Yemen’s Houthi group said that it has launched a “ballistic missile” toward Nevatim Airbase in Israel, and has 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 Nevatim 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 said. “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 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 concerning the missile attack, nor any response from the US military over the alleged downing, Xinhua news agency reported.