FACT CHECK: Image Claims To Show MQ-9 Drone Wreckage In Yemen In 2025
An image shared on Instagram claims to show an MQ-9 drone wrecked in Yemen in 2025.
View this post on Instagram
Verdict: Misleading
The image is from 2024, not 2025. It appears to be from a different location in Yemen than the one cited in the Instagram post.
Fact Check:
Social media users are claiming to show an MQ-9 drone shot down by Houthi forces in Dhamar Governorate in March 2025. One user wrote, “A photo of the wreckage of the American MQ-9 drone that was shot down by Yemeni air defenses in Dhamar Governorate.”
Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the image is from May 2024, not March 2025. The image was shared by a pro-Russian outlet that claims the Houthis shot down the drone in Marib Governorate, which is different from Dhamar.
Check Your Fact could not find any recent claims from the Houthis themselves that they shot down an MQ-9 drone in the Dhamar Governorate, though an outlet did report that the group shot down an MQ-9 on March 19 in the region. (RELATED: Did Vice President JD Vance Say Elon Musk Is ‘Making Us Look Bad?’)
The group did claim on March 3 that they shot down an MQ-9 drone in Al Hudaydah Governorate, with Star & Stripes reporting that a U.S. official told the outlet that they lost contact with a drone the same day.
مشاهد إسقاط طائرة MQ9 الأمريكية بصاروخ أرض-جو محلي الصنع أثناء تنفيذها مهام عدائية في أجواء محافظة الحديدة – 2025/03/03م pic.twitter.com/pno5rReale
— الإعلام الحربي اليمني (@MMY1444) March 4, 2025
“Scenes of the downing of the American MQ9 drone with a locally-made surface-to-air missile while carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Al Hudaydah Governorate – 03/03/2025 AD,” reads the tweet from the Houthis.
Misbar also fact-checked the claim.
