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Yemen rebel attack on airport sets plane on fire

Published:Thursday | February 11, 2021 | 5:48 AM
In this frame grab from video, Saudi state television shows an airplane damaged in an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at an airport near Abha, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. (AP)
The Associated Press
In this frame grab from video, Saudi state television shows an airplane damaged in an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at an airport near Abha, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. (AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP):

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire, the kingdom’s state television reported. The attack threatened to escalate Yemen’s grinding war.

No one was hurt in the assault, but the damaged passenger plane at Abha airport served as a powerful reminder of the danger that Houthi rebels pose to Saudi Arabia, which nearly six years ago launched a bombing campaign that has devastated the Arab world’s poorest country.

The Iran-aligned Houthis soon claimed responsibility for the assault, with military spokesman Yehia Sarea stressing that the Houthis consider Abha airport to be a military, not civilian, target.

“This targeting comes in response to the continued aerial bombardment and the brutal siege of our country,” Sarea said, adding the group attacked with four bomb-laden drones.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, said forces earlier intercepted and destroyed two drones launched by Houthis toward the country’s south. He condemned the assault as a “systematic and deliberate attempt to target civilians”.

Photographs later aired by Saudi state television showed the aircraft, a three-year-old Airbus A320 flown by low-cost carrier FlyADeal. It appeared the drone had punched a hole through its fuselage, with scorch marks on the metal. An anchor on state television said there were no injuries on the ground from the fire. FlyADeal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since 2015, the Houthis battling the Saudi-led military coalition have targeted international airports, along with military installations and critical oil infrastructure, within Saudi Arabia. The Houthis repeatedly have used drones against Saudi Arabia, including crashing them into the kingdom’s Patriot missile batteries, most recently on Sunday when the coalition said it intercepted five “booby-trapped” drones. Those attacks, often striking near the southern cities of Abha and Jizan, have wounded dozens and killed at least one person in recent years.