The Yemen-based rebels say they hit the aircraft with a missile as part of a renewed series of assaults amid the Israel-Gaza war.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed to have shot down another of the US military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis said they shot down the Predator with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Gaza war.
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Bryon J. McGarry, a defence department spokesman, acknowledged on Saturday that “a US Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen”. He said an investigation was under way, without elaborating.
The Houthis described the incident as happening on Thursday over their stronghold in the country’s Saada province.
