A drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport on Tuesday injured eight people and damaged surrounding infrastructure, including a civilian plane, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed. The coalition blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels for launching the attack.
“On Tuesday, a second attempt to target travelling civilians and staff at Abha International Airport by the terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia using a bomb-laden drone was thwarted,” coalition spokesperson General Turki Al-Maliki said. Some debris scattered around the airport and injured eight people due to the interception, he added.
Most of the injured were expatriates, including four Indians. According to the coalition statement, one Bangladeshi citizen was in “critical condition,” while two Indians faced moderate risk from their injuries. The statement added that the attack caused damage to a commercial aircraft, ground support equipment, and had shattered glass facades.
The coalition said the attack was a “deliberate [and] systematic” attempt by the Houthis to target civilians. “These acts confirm the hostile nature of the militia, and its transgressions against the customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL) under which Abha International Airport is considered a Civilian Object protected by the IHL,” the statement read. It added that the coalition “will continue to implement all necessary operational procedures to neutralise” the Houthis as per the IHL.
It was the second such attack on the Abha airport in less than 24 hours. Earlier, a ballistic missile strike on the airport scattered shrapnel around the premises but did not result in any casualties. The attack also comes after missiles rained down on the coalition’s Al-Anad military base in Yemen on Sunday, killing 30 Yemeni soldiers and injuring more than 60. Moreover, Saudi air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles aimed at the Saudi cities of Najran and Jazan on Monday.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, coalition officials have blamed the Iran-backed Houthis. The Houthis and coalition-backed forces are engaged in a fierce battle to control Yemen’s Marib region, which borders Saudi Arabia. Marib is also the last major stronghold of the internationally recognised government of Yemen led by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Meanwhile, the Gulf and regional states, including Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, condemned the attacks. In addition, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called it a “cowardly terrorist act and a war crime.” The OIC also blamed the Houthis for the attacks on Najran and Jazan and commended the Saudi forces’ “efficiency and skills” in thwarting it. The grouping urged the international community to “take decisive stances to stop the continuous cowardly threats with ballistic missiles and UAVs.”
Furthermore, United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the Houthis to “uphold a ceasefire and engage in negotiations” with Saudi Arabia. “Saudi Arabia has endured more than 240 attacks from the Houthis, who have endangered the Saudi people alongside more than 70,000 US citizens residing in Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said.
The unrest in Yemen began in 2014 when a civil war broke out between the Houthis and the internationally recognised Hadi government. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive in Yemen by conducting airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas. Since then, there has been no end in sight to the war in Yemen and international efforts to halt the fighting have mostly failed. The war has killed around 130,000 people, and the United Nations has called the conflict in Yemen “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
Eight Injured in Houthi Drone Attack on Saudi Airport, Gulf Countries, US Condemn Incident
Officials blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels for launching the attack.
September 1, 2021
A projectile and a drone launched at Saudi Arabia by the Houthis are displayed at a Saudi military base, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia June 21, 2019. SOURCE: REUTERS