SANAA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed late of Friday that they had shoot down a U.S. drone north of the capital Sanaa.
"Our air defences shot down MQ-1 Predator Drone in Hamdan district north of the capital Sanaa," the rebels said in a brief statement on the group-controlled Saba news agency.
The group said the drone is run by their foe Saudi-led coalition forces. There were no comments by the coalition over the rebels' claim.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi back to power after Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north.
The rebels have threatened to strike Riyadh and Abu Dhabi if the coalition forces pushed into Hodeidah, a key sea port for the entry of most food imports and humanitarian aid.
The rebels have refused to withdraw from Hodeidah port city, hampering the implementation of a UN-brokered peace deal reached in Sweden in December last year to end four years of devastating war.
