Spokesman Yahya Saree made the announcement on Wednesday. He said that Yemen’s air defenses intercepted and downed a US MQ-9 armed drone over the country’s regional waters, without specifying the date of the incident, according to Al-Masirah TV.

Saree said that the unmanned aerial vehicle was conducting spy and hostile activities when it was downed using what he called an appropriate weapon.

He stressed that the Yemeni armed forces have the legal right to defend their country in the face of threats.

The spokesman also said that the UAV’s operation was part of Washington’s measures aimed at supporting the Zionist regime, adding that such hostile moves would not stop Yemen’s armed forces carrying out anti-Israel military operations aimed at supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Yemeni armed forces have in the past week fired drones and missiles at Israel in response to its brutal war in the Gaza Strip where more than 10,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed since the outbreak of the war on October 7.