DUBAI, UAE – A bomb-laden drone crashed Tuesday at an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, injuring eight people and damaging a civilian plane, Saudi state television reported. ‘last attack on the kingdom in the middle of its war by neighboring Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen blamed the assault on Houthi rebels backed by Iran and said it was the second such strike at Abha airport in 24 hours. A previous attack with ballistic missiles scattered shrapnel across the asphalt, but caused no casualties. The houthis did not claim responsibility for the strikes and their military spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Saudi forces said they dropped the drone and that their interception sent flying fragments that drilled small holes in a passenger plane, shattered glass and injured citizens of Bangladesh, Nepal and India. A Bangladeshi man remained in critical condition, the coalition said, without providing further details about the assault.
The attack comes just days after missiles and drones crashed into a key military base in southern Yemen, killing at least 30 Yemeni soldiers backed by Saudi Arabia and marking one of the deadliest attacks in a long time. civil war in the country. No one claimed responsibility for the strike, which had the characteristics of Iran-backed rebels.
Since 2015, Yemeni Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-led military coalition have been heading to international airports, along with military facilities and critical oil infrastructure, in Saudi Arabia.
These attacks, which often occur near the southern cities of Abha and Jizan, have rarely caused substantial damage, but over the years they have killed at least one person, injured dozens and shaken world oil markets. . Within Yemen, the bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia has sparked international criticism for killing civilians, achieving non-military targets such as hospitals and wedding parties, and devastating the infrastructure of the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.
The war in Yemen has become a bloody stalemate, even as international diplomatic efforts to curb fighting intensify. The Houthis have stepped up their efforts to gain control of Marib’s oil-rich government fortress in recent months and have intensified their cross-border attacks on the kingdom.
As the rebels pressed their offensive against Marib, the Yemeni army said it thwarted an attack on the nearby city of Rahbah on Monday. Furious battles around the critical province of Marib in recent months have left thousands of fighters dead, mostly Houthis, and killed 12 government soldiers on Monday, a military official said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized. to talk to reporters.
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the north of the country. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened months later to fire the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.
The war has killed some 130,000 people and caused the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.
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Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.