Debris from intercepted Houthi drone injure 4 workers at Abha airport

SMA NEWS – RIYADH

Four people were slightly injured after a Houthi drone was intercepted at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, the Arab Coalition supporting Yemen’s legitimate government said early Thursday.

In a statement carried by state TV Al-Ekhbariyah, the Coalition said falling debris from the destroyed unmanned aerial vehicle shattered the glass of some facades, injuring some workers at the airport.

Responding warplanes quickly destroyed the drone launch site in Saada governorate in northwest Yemen, the statement said.

Al-Ekhbariyah TV reported that navigation traffic in the airport is normal after it was halted temporarily.

The coalition blamed the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen for the attempted attack.

“The Houthi attempt to target civilians at Abha airport as a civilian airport is a war crime,” the state TV quoted the coalition as saying.

Abha airport, along with its neighbor city Khamis Mushayt, had seen repeated Houthi drone and missile strikes in the past years since Saudi Arabia led a coalition of Arab states in helping Yemen’s legitimate government fight the Iran-backed Houthis.

The drone strike came hours after coalition warplanes reported destroying two drones that were being prepared by Houthis in Al-Jawf in northern Yemen “to carry out an imminent hostile act towards Saudi Arabia”.

Earlier on Wednesday, coalition forces  destroyed three booby-trapped boats during an operation targeting a site in Hodeidah governorate in Western Yemen.

The boats were reportedly being prepared to carry out attacks and that the site was used to assemble and arm boats.