UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, REVISES HEADLINE
By Ahmed Asmar and Mohammad Sio
ANKARA (AA) – The Yemeni Houthi group claimed on Wednesday to have shot down a US drone in northeastern Yemen and attacked Israeli and American targets amid an exchange of attacks with Washington.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree said that a US MQ-9 drone was intercepted “while carrying out hostile missions” over Al-Jawf province in northeastern Yemen.
He said the drone was brought down by “a domestically made surface-to-air missile.”
Saree said the drone was the third to have been downed in 10 days and the 18th since the group started its military operations in support of Gaza following Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.
He said Houthi forces also targeted with a drone an Israeli military site in Tel Aviv in central Israel, without giving details.
Drones also targeted “hostile warships” in the Red Sea, including the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, he added.
There was no immediate comment from Israel or the US on the claim.
The Houthi spokesman said that US airstrikes continued in several areas across Yemen in the past few hours, causing civilian casualties.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 10 people were killed and 16 others injured in US airstrikes in Al-Hawak district in the coastal Al-Hudaydah province.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV also reported US strikes targeting telecommunications networks in the provinces of Ibb and Amran in northern Yemen.
According to the Houthi-run Health Ministry figures, US airstrikes in Yemen have killed at least 107 civilians and injured 223 others since March 15.
Last month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered "decisive and powerful military action" against the Houthis and later threatened to "completely annihilate them."
The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed more than 50,800 people.
The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas but resumed them after renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza last month.