Saudi Arabia’s Jizan airport targeted by Houthi drone: Masirah TV

Saudi-UAE-led coalition fighting the Houthis have not confirmed the attack on Jizan airport.

Yemen''s Houthi movement forces ride in the back of vehicle during withdrawal from Saleef port in Hodeidah province
Houthi rebels have stepped up drone attacks on Saudi cities in the past two weeks [File: Abduljabbar Zeyad/Reuters]

Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a drone attack on military hangars in Saudi Arabia‘s Jizan airport near the Yemeni border, the group’s al-Masirah TV reported on Sunday.

There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities or from a Saudi-Emirati-led coalition that has been battling the Houthis in Yemen since March 2015.

The Houthis, who overthrew the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government from power in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in late 2014, have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities in the past two weeks.

Last Thursday, the rebel group said they had targeted the airport in the Saudi Arabian city of Najran with a drone strike. The kingdom said the attack was intercepted by its air defences and destroyed.

Najran, 840km southwest of Riyadh, lies on the Saudi-Yemen border and has repeatedly been targeted by the Houthis.

Earlier this month, the Houthis attacked an oil pipeline near the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Yemen‘s four-year conflict has triggered what the United Nations terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with over 24 million people, more than two-thirds of the population, in need of aid.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

The latest hostilities coincide with rising tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states allied to the United States and come just as a sensitive, UN-sponsored peace deal is being carried out in Yemen’s main port of Hodeidah, a lifeline for millions.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies