A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone went down in Yemen's Marib on Wednesday, marking the sixth American drone downed in Yemen since November last year.
Sheba Intelligence obtained video footage showing the entire fuselage of the drone in a desert region as if it was not a missile that had hit the drone before falling.
The U.S. military's Central Command acknowledged seeing "reports" of the aircraft being downed in Yemen.
Throughout this month, three U.S. drones have fallen in Yemen and the Houthis have claimed responsibility for downing the unmanned aircrafts.
However, the last one, which went down today, has sparked questions about the cause of its fall. Military sources have offered different scenarios to explain this incident.
The first scenario: The drone was affected by government forces' jamming devices, with bullets hitting sensitive areas of the aircraft. Members of the National Army in Marib said in the video they used a 14/7 machine gun when firing at the drone. The National Army in Marib took over the fuselage of the drone.
The second scenario: The Houthis or another party possesses an electromagnetic or laser weapon system through which drones can be shot down.
The third scenario: The drone is not American and may have been imitated by the Iranians, and its performance was poor, causing it to fall quickly.
The fourth scenario: The Iranian Khordad system, which the Houthis owned, was behind downing the U.S. drone. However, this scenario is ruled out because the drone's fuselage was intact.
The Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement today his forces downed an American MQ-9 aircraft while it was "carrying out hostile missions" in the airspace of Marib province. According to the statement, the drone was downed at dawn on Wednesday.
Since January this year, the U.S. has conducted numerous airstrikes on Houthi sites in North Yemen in response to the Houthi attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
The Houthi group began attacking ships off Yemen in November, saying its operations are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel killed over 35000 people.
