WASHINGTON/SANAA - US President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that strikes on Yemen's Houthis will continue until they are no longer a threat to US ships.

"The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, declaring that the Houthis had been "decimated" by "relentless" strikes over the past two weeks.

Trump's threat came as his administration battles a scandal after a text chat was leaked involving senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.

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The airstrikes were discussed among Trump's national security team on Signal, a commercial messaging app, which accidentally included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who released the contents of the chat last week.

Tensions between the Houthis and the US military have escalated since Washington launched fresh airstrikes on Yemen on March 15.

The Houthis said in a statement early Tuesday that it has shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Yemen's central province of Marib.

"Our air defenses shot down a hostile American MQ-9 drone in the airspace of Marib province, using a locally manufactured missile," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV.

"This is the sixteenth US drone that our air defenses have successfully shot down since October 2023," he said, without specifying the exact timing. Local Houthi media reported that the drone was downed on Monday.

READ MORE: Houthi TV: 2 killed in US airstrikes on suburb of Yemeni capital

"We affirm that we will continue to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red Sea and the Arabian Seas ... until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted," Sarea said, adding they will also keep carrying out attacks against "enemy warships."

He was referring to the US Navy, including the aircraft carrier, stationed in the northern Red Sea.

On Monday, fresh US airstrikes killed two people and injured a child in Bani Qa'is in Yemen's northwestern province of Hajjah, according to residents and local health authorities.