Washington announces the fall of one of its drones in Yemen and its recovery by partner forces

Two US defense officials said that a US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed over Yemen on Monday night, without specifying the cause of the crash or the exact location of its landing.

CNN quoted an American official as saying, "An American MQ-9 Reaper drone was hit last week, but it landed safely."

He added that partner forces had recovered it, noting that the incident was under investigation.

The military spokesman for the Houthi militia, Yahya Saree, announced yesterday, Tuesday, that his forces had shot down an MQ_9 aircraft in the airspace of Dhamar Governorate, days after he announced the downing of two aircraft of the same type in Saada and Marib (September 10-7, respectively).

Saree claimed that this is the tenth American plane to be shot down since the start of the war in Gaza.

CNN added, "The Houthis have often exaggerated the success of their drone and missile strikes or falsely claimed to have hit a ship or aircraft, including claims of hitting US warships operating in the area."

When asked about this latest claim of a downed plane, Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh cast doubt on the Houthi claims but did not rule out the possibility entirely.

"I think they've made claims before that they hit ships and they didn't, they've made claims before that they hit aircraft and they didn't, we're looking into that report and if there's truth to it, we'll certainly let you know," Singh said at a news conference.

Each MQ-9 costs about $28 million, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The United States has previously acknowledged the downing of aircraft of this type during the current year.