Yemeni Drones Put Saudi Airport Out of Action

Date: 08 September 2020 - 22:09

News ID: ۸۲۶۰۱

CAIRO (Dispatches) – Yemeni forces said they aimed a number of drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport early on Tuesday in retaliation and put it out of action for several hours.
Abha airport, near Saudi Arabia’s south-west border with Yemen, has been a regular target for Yemeni drones and missiles over the past two years.
Yemen’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Twitter the attack with Samad 3 drones took place at dawn.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since Saudi Arabia launched an invasion in March 2015 to restore the former Yemeni government.
Cross-border attacks by Yemeni forces have escalated since late May when a truce prompted by the coronavirus pandemic expired. In late June, missiles reached the Saudi capital Riyadh.
In a brief statement on his Twitter page on, Sarea said Yemen’s drones struck the designated targets with great precision.
The spokesman reiterated that Yemeni soldiers and allied popular fighters will continue to carry out such strikes deep inside Saudi Arabia as long as Riyadh presses ahead with its deadly aggression and siege of Yemen.
Minister of Transport in Yemen’s National Salvation Government Zakaria al-Shami denounced the continuing Saudi naval and air blockade on his country, saying the Sana’a International Airport will soon stop its operations due to lack of fuel.
Shami said all incoming flights by the United Nations and international humanitarian agencies to the airport will be suspended as of Wednesday because of oil derivatives needed to operate the facility have run out.
"The coalition of aggression seeks to make up for its losses during ground operation by
means of such acts. The continued detention of oil tankers and not allowing the vessels to offload their cargos at the port of Hudaydah have created a humanitarian catastrophe for Yemeni people, especially for patients receiving treatment in hospitals and newborn babies,” he said.
He said thousands of Yemeni patients need to travel abroad to seek medical treatment, but they are unable to do so due to the airport’s closure.
On Friday, the deputy foreign minister of Yemen’s National Salvation Government based in Sana’a warned that Al-Qaeda forces are joining Saudi-led mercenaries in the strategic central Ma’rib province.
"The redeployment of Al-Qaeda forces in Ma’rib is a major mistake that will serve no one and will cause a catastrophe that no side can avoid,” Hussein al-Ezzi tweeted.
According to Yemeni media reports, a large number of Al-Qaeda terrorists have joined the Saudi-led forces in Ma’rib from various provinces as the kingdom braces for a looming Yemeni operation that seeks to liberate the strategic region.
In recent days, the Yemeni army, backed by Houthi fighters, has accomplished new victories in their battle to liberate Ma’rib province.
Fearful of an imminent defeat, the Saudi-led coalition has sent additional military reinforcements into Ma’rib. But its campaign has been set up by widespread defections among the mercenaries.
With the Saudi campaign mired by a quagmire, tensions have also erupted between Saudi-backed militants and UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen, leading to violent clashes between them.