A Houthi drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport has injured nine civilians on Tuesday, the latest in a series of recent cross-border terrorist attacks by the Iran-backed group in Yemen.
Eight Saudis and one Indian citizen were injured in the attack. The Houthis have recently stepped up attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition battling them.
Abha Airport.
Abha Airport had resumed flights, a Saudi spokesperson said.
It is the third attack in a month on Abha International airport by the Houthis.
On June 12th, Houthis fired a missile at the same airport, wounding 26 people. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, called the attack “a blatant war crime to target civilians at an airport” in a post on Twitter. Saudi Vice Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman said the targeting of Abha Airport by the Iranian-backed Houthis “is a continuation of their immoral and criminal behavior that is in line with the malign behavior of their patrons. I pray for a quick recovery for the wounded…We will confront the Houthi militia’s crimes with unwavering resolve. Their targeting of a civilian airport exposes to the world the recklessness of Iran’s escalation and the danger it poses to regional security and stability,” he said in June.
On June 23, another rebel attack on the same airport killed a Syrian national and wounded 21 other civilians.
The attacks have drawn international condemnation, including from the International Air Transport Association, which “condemns any and all targeting of civil aviation, its passengers, facilities and operations in all conflicts,” the SPA notes.
