Yemen's Houthis Hit Saudi Airport: One Dead, 21 Wounded

Saudi security officers are seen at Saudi Arabia's Abha airport, after it was attacked by Yemen's Houthi group in Abha, Saudi Arabia June 13, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

23 June 2019
Telesur

According to the Houthi-run Almasirah TV, the movement targeted Abha and Jizan airports with drone attacks.

Yemen’s Houthis launched an attack on Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia on Sunday killing one person and wounding 21 others, the Saudi-led coalition reported.

According to the Houthi-run Almasirah TV, the movement targeted Abha and Jizan airports with drone attacks. The Houthi militia has increased its attacks on airports in recent days and launched major attacks on oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, a Houthi missile hit the same airport, which is located about 200 km (125 miles) north of the Yemen border and serves domestic and regional routes, in a strike that wounded 26 people. Riyadh has accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with the weapon used in the June 13 attack on Abha airport.

Dubbed as the “Forgotten War,” the Yemeni civil war started on March 26, 2015, when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates led a coalition of countries in a military campaign against Ansar Allah (Houthi) rebels in Yemen in support of the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi.

The conflict has since turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran. A narrative rejected by the Houthis who say that they took power from the Saudi-backed government in order to end Saudi interference into the country's affairs.

The war in Yemen has already, according to a United Nation’s report, claimed 230,000 lives, many of those civilian, and has left almost 14 million people at increased risk of famine.