Houthi drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport have injured at least eight people and damaged a civilian aeroplane.
Earlier, a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said that it seized a Houthi drone that was targeting the airport.
The first attack’s shrapnel hit parts of the airport near the runway.
In a statement released by the nation’s official Al-Ekhbariya television channel, the coalition said that ‘a second drone attempting to attack Abha International Airport was intercepted and shot down’.
The debris of the second armed drone wounded eight people and damaged a civilian aeroplane inside the airport.
According to the coalition, the subsequent attack on the airport ‘constitutes a war crime.’
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By GlobalDataFollowing the second attack, the flights at Abha International Airport were stopped temporarily ‘to ensure the safety of incoming and departing aircraft, as well as civilians at the airport.’
Abha International Airport general manager Ahmed al-Qahtani was quoted by Reuters as saying: “The airport hasn’t cancelled any flight. We suspended the flights for security measures for several minutes or about half an hour.”
He added that among the injured, one person is in critical condition while the others are being treated in the local hospital.
Although the Houthis did not claim responsibility for the attack, the Iran-aligned group is known to fire drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia on a regular basis.
Yemen’s conflict has killed several people and displaced millions, resulting in what the United Nations (UN) calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
While the UN is working to end the war, the Houthis have called for the re-opening of Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport, which is shut under a Saudi blockade since 2016.