ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The UAE grounded most private drones and light sports aircraft used for recreational purposes for a month starting Saturday, the Interior Ministry said, following a retaliatory attack this week by Yemen’s army.
While the Interior Ministry did not refer directly to the attack in imposing the ban, it said the decision came after finding misuse of permits granted to those who practice these sports.
“MOI (Ministry of Interior) is currently stopping all flying operations for owners, practitioners and enthusiasts of drones, including drones and light sports aircrafts,” it said in a statement.
Exceptions might be granted by the permit authorities for businesses using drones for filming, the ministry said.
The report came less than a week after Yemen’s army and allied forces from the Popular Committees staged their latest retaliatory strikes against Abu Dhabi and parts of Saudi Arabia.
Abu Dhabi police, in a statement published on the official Emirates news agency, WAM, said three fuel tanker trucks exploded in the industrial Musaffah area, near storage facilities of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and that a fire also broke out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Saudi Arabia also said that the Yemeni forces had targeted the kingdom with “nine drones.”
The strikes came in response to the UAE’s involvement in a Saudi-led war on Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis while unsuccessfully trying to return the impoverished country’s former Riyadh-backed officials to power.
Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah resistance movement warned Abu Dhabi that it should brace for more stinging retaliatory strikes from Yemeni armed forces and their allies if Abu Dhabi did not end its involvement in the atrocious military aggression against the conflict-stricken Arab country.
“The UAE should expect more painful attacks if it does not stop attacking Yemen,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansarullah’s Political Bureau, told Qatar’s Al Jazeera television news network.