The Yemeni Armed Forces have shot down another American drone with a “locally manufactured missile” in retaliation for the relentless US aggression and its deadly airstrikes across several provinces in the Arab country.

The forces said in a statement on Wednesday that the operation was in response to the ongoing American aggression against Yemen and its horrific massacres against Yemeni people just hours after the US launched a number of deadly aerial attacks on various areas.

The statement underlined that the shooting brought to 18 the total number of US drones destroyed since Yemen launched retaliatory strikes against regional US deployments in support of Palestinians who have been suffering merciless Israeli aggression during the regime’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip since October 2023.

“With the help of Allah Almighty, our air defenses were able to shoot down an American MQ-9 drone while it was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of al-Jawf Governorate, using a suitable, locally manufactured missile,” the Yemeni Armed Forces said. “This is the third drone our air defenses have successfully shot down in ten days, and the eighteenth during the battle of Promised Victory and Holy Jihad in support of Gaza.”

The forces affirmed Yemen’s continued support for Gaza and their continued implementation of defensive missions to confront any aggression against the country.

“They are fully prepared to deal responsibly with any attempt to undermine our sovereignty, security, and stability, and our operations will not cease until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” the statement added.

In the late hours of Tuesday, the United States carried out 22 fresh deadly airstrikes across several provinces around Yemen shortly after targeting the country, including the capital Sana’a, to dozens of similar aerial attacks.

The western province of al-Hudaydah was badly hit as eight civilians, including two children and a woman, were confirmed dead. At least 16 others were also injured, many of them critically.

The US and its Western allies have escalated their aggression against Yemen after the country resumed its anti-Israel operations over the regime’s resumption of the campaign of genocide in Gaza last month, with Yemeni outlets saying the American assaults have been hitting purely civilian targets, claiming the lives of dozens of non-combatants.

Yemen’s military has been, since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began a war of genocide against Gaza, staging numerous operations against Israeli and Israeli-linked targets as a means of forcing Tel Aviv into stopping the warfare and ending a simultaneous siege it has slammed on the Palestinian territory.

American naval assets have already come under intense Yemeni reprisal both in response to Washington’s military adventurism and its complicity in the Israeli genocide.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel’s ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.