A Yemeni rebel attack on a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia wounded nine civilians on Tuesday, a Riyadh-led coalition said, the latest in a series of strikes on the airport.
“The terrorist attack on Abha airport … led to the injury of nine civilians, including eight Saudi citizens and one carrying an Indian passport,” the military coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Earlier, the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels said they “launched a wide operation targeting warplanes at Abha international airport” with drones, according to their Almasirah television channel.
Abha airport has come under repeated missile and drone attacks in the past several weeks. On June 12, a rebel missile attack on Abha airport wounded 26 civilians, drawing promises of “stern action” from the Saudi-Emirati coalition.
And on June 23, another rebel attack on Abha airport killed a Syrian national and wounded 21 other civilians, according to the coalition.
Stepped up attacks
The Houthis have stepped up attacks in recent weeks against Saudi Arabia, which has been running a bloody military campaign in the Middle East’s poorest country since 2015.
The Houthi rebels took control of vast swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, in late 2014, forcing the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from power.
The raids come amid heightened regional tensions after Washington – a key ally of Riyadh – accused Iran of shooting down a US drone over international waters and of carrying out attacks on oil tankers in the strategic Gulf of Oman.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to Houthi rebels, a charge Tehran denies.
Following recent attacks, Saudi state media have reported an intensification of coalition air raids on rebel positions in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah and the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, relief agencies say.
The fighting has triggered what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people displaced and in need of aid.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
