On Tuesday, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for several drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport, putting the aerodrome out of service for many hours. The Saudi-led coalition (SLC) fighting the group in Sana’a said that it had intercepted and wrecked a drone targeted at the airport on Sunday, which was aimed at civilian targets. The airport in Abha, which is near the Kingdom’s southwestern border with Yemen in the Asir province, has emerged as a regular target for missile and drone attacks by the Houthis over the past two years. Several of these attempts have been intercepted by the SLC, but many have also been successful hits that have caused numerous deaths and injuries.
A spokesperson for the Houthi military, Yahya Sarea, revealed on Twitter that the attack, which was carried out using Samad 3 drones, took place just before sunrise. Riyadh has not revealed the extent of the damage yet. Yemen has been in the throes of a devastating conflict ever since the ousting of its government in Sana’a by Houthi rebels in late 2014, which was followed by the intervention of the SLC in March 2015.
The Shi’ite Houthis, who believe that they are fighting a corrupt system, also shut down the international airport in Sana’a, suspending all humanitarian flights from the United Nations (UN) and other international agencies to the war-torn capital, citing a lack of fuel as the reason. The Yemeni government, however, in a series of tweets, slammed the move, calling it “a desperate attempt to cover up their [Houthis’] theft of more than 50 billion riyals of oil derivative proceeds in Hodeidah, earmarked for paying civilian employees’ salaries in Yemen.”
On Monday, Lt. Gen. Mutlaq Al-Azima, the new acting commander of the SLC’s joint forces, who was appointed by Saudi King Salman last week, visited the field units at the Kingdom’s southern border for inspection. Al-Azima met with unit leaders and armed forces members and was briefed on their military operations. He praised the soldiers and their “brave and heroic stances in defending their religion, sovereignty, and homeland”.
Simultaneously, a military court in Yemen’s central Marib province on Sunday sentenced five Houthi rebels to death on charges of plotting to assassinate security and military officers and for ‘undermining security in government-controlled areas’. The court had also ordered the prosecution to question 180 senior Houthi members, including Abdul Malik Al-Houthi and his brothers, who have been previously charged for killing several people and groups and forming the armed group responsible for overthrowing the government by colluding with other countries. At the same time, President of the internationally recognized government, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, said that government forces, supported by the SLC’s aircraft, had managed to “achieve big victories” by neutralizing dozens of Houthi forces and their military equipment in several strategic regions.
Yemeni Houthis Claim Responsibility for Drone Attack at Saudi’s Abha Airport
On Sunday, the Arab coalition intercepted and destroyed a drone targeting the international aerodrome.
September 9, 2020
A Saudi facility destroyed by a Houthi drone in 2019. SOURCE: NEWS MOBILE