Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi Arabia’s Najran airport again

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group said today it had carried out another drone attack on Najran airport in south-western Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border.

“Houthis’ Qasef K2 combat drones hit Saudi Arabia’s Najran Regional Airport for the second time in 24 hours,” a military source told the group’s Lebanon-based Al-Masirah.

The source added that the airstrike was targeting a hanger at the airport containing warplanes.

The group stressed that the raid was “successful,” pointing out that the warplanes it targeted were being used in “attacking innocent civilians.”

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia or the Saudi-led coalition.

READ: Yemen’s Houthis launch drone attack on Saudi’s Najran airport

On Tuesday, Houthi drones hit an arms depot at the kingdom’s Najran airport, causing a fire. The group said on Sunday that it would attack 300 vital military targets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE head a Western-backed coalition of Sunni Muslim states that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in late 2014.

While Houthis pledged last November to stop attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE at the request of the United Nations, it has during the war repeatedly targeted Saudi cities and vital installations – mostly in border areas, but on several occasions the Saudi capital Riyadh as well.

In return, the Arab coalition has carried out multiple air strikes on the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa which it says target military facilities and aim to neutralise the group’s ability to fire missiles and drones.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi accuse Iran of arming the Houthis. Tehran denies the accusations.

READ: Yemen’s Houthis deny targeting Makkah with ballistic missiles