A U.S. military MQ-9 drone was shot down in Yemen, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.
The drone was shot down late on Tuesday in Yemen’s Dhamar governate, southeast of the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, officials told Reuters, which first reported the news.
A Houthi military spokesman was quoted earlier by the group’s Al-Masirah TV as saying that air defenses had brought down a U.S. drone.
Additional information was not immediately available.
One U.S. official told Reuters that the drone had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile operated by the Iranian-backed Houthi group, however, another official cautioned it was too early to say who was responsible.
This is not the first time Houthi rebels have shot down a U.S. drone in Yemen.
In June, officials told reporters that a U.S. operated MQ-9 drone was showdown by the Iranian-backed rebels.
The news comes amid tensions in the region between Iran and the United States that have risen since the Trump administration’s decision to last year to quit an international nuclear deal to curb Iran’s ambitions.
