DUBAI, March 4. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement have downed a US reconnaissance combat drone over Yemen’s Hodeidagovernorate, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.

"Our air defense forces have managed to shoot down a US MQ-9 drone which violated Yemen’s airspace and was carrying out a hostile mission over the Hodeida governorate," he said in a statement on his X page.

According to Saree, the Houthis have downed fifteen such drones since the beginning of the current spiral of escalation in the Middle East. According to the US Congress, each such drone costs around $30 million.

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since mid-November, dozens of civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response to Ansar Allah's actions, the US authorities announced the creation of an international coalition and preparations for an operation codenamed Prosperity Guardian, expected to ensure freedom of navigation and protection of ships in the Red Sea. Since then, the United States and the United Kingdom have been regularly delivering strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.