Old photo of spy plane shot down in airspace of the Maraziq area shared as American shot down by Houthis

A photo of a destroyed aircraft has been circulating on social media, accompanied by the following claim: “Yemeni air defenses shoot down an American drone while flying in the airspace of Dhamar Governorate”.

Kashif verified the image via “Google Images” tool, and found that it is old and was incorrectly linked to the downing of an American plane while flying in the airspace of Dhamar Governorate. The image was published by the “Press Yemeni” on 24 May 2021 titled: “Military Media broadcasts scenes of the moment the CH-4 fighter plane was downed in Al-Jawf”.

Kashif’s team also found that the image was taken from a video published by the “Yemeni Military Media” on the same date,24 May 2021, with the following title: “Al-Jawf – Scenes of the CH-4 fighter spy plane being hit and shot down by a surface-to-air missile on the Al-Maraziq front”. 

In the details of the event, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the armed forces at the time, stated that the Yemeni air defenses “were able to shoot down a Chinese-made CH-4 aircraft while it was carrying out hostile acts in the airspace of the Al-Maraziq area in Al-Jawf Governorate”.

 Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced in a statement on Monday 16 September 2024, the “shooting down of an American MQ-9 drone that was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Dhamar Governorate”. According to the statement, “This is the third drone to be shot down within a week, and the tenth of its kind to be shot down by Yemeni air defenses since the beginning of the Battle of the Promised Conquest and the Holy Jihad in support of Gaza”.