- May 21, 2019
Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi airport and military base with a bomb-laden drone Tuesday, an assault acknowledged by Saudi Arabia as tensions remained high between Tehran and Washington. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel said they targeted the airport in Najran with a Qasef-2K drone, striking an “arms depot.” Najran lies on the Saudi-Yemen border and has been repeatedly targeted by the Houthis.
A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis, Col. Turki al-Maliki, as saying that the rebels “had tried to target” a civilian site in Najran.
Civilian airports in the Middle East often host military bases.
Maliki warned that there would be a “strong deterrent” to such attacks and described the Houthis as the “terrorist militias of Iran.” Similar Houthi attacks have sparked Saudi-led strikes on Yemen, which have been widely criticized for civilian deaths.
Last week, the Houthis carried out a coordinated drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline. Earlier this month, officials in the United Arab Emirates alleged that four oil tankers were sabotaged, and U.S. diplomats relayed a warning that commercial airlines could be misidentified by Iran and attacked.
— Associated Press
Matty (Headwind) 