RIYADH: A Yemeni rebel attack on a civilian airport in southern SaudiArabia killed a Syrian national and wounded seven civilians Sunday, aRiyadh-led coalition said, the latest in a series of strikes on the site.
“A terrorist attack by the Iranian-backed Huthi militia took place at Abhainternational airport, through which thousands of civilian passengers… passdaily,” the military coalition said.
“A Syrian national died and seven civilians were wounded,” it added, in astatement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The coalition did not provide details on how the airport was attacked, butIran-aligned Huthi rebels have repeatedly struck the civilian facility thismonth with drones and missiles.
Earlier on Sunday, the rebels’ Al-Masirah TV said they had targeted Abhaand Jizan airports in the south of the kingdom with drones.
Abha airport authorities said on Twitter that air traffic had resumed andwas functioning normally, without offering further details.
On June 12, a rebel missile attack on the international airport in thesouthwestern city of Abha wounded 26 civilians, drawing promises of “sternaction” from the coalition.
Human Rights Watch denounced last week’s strike as an apparent “war crime”,urging the Huthis to immediately stop all attacks on civilianinfrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
The attacks come amid heightened regional tensions with Iran, which SaudiArabia has repeatedly accused of supplying sophisticated weapons to therebels.
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Tehran denies the charge.
Saudi state media have reported an intensification of coalition air raidson rebel positions in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah and theHuthi-held capital Sanaa.
The coalition intervened in support of the Yemeni government in 2015 whenPresident Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into Saudi exile as the rebels closedin on his last remaining territory in and around second city Aden.
Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, many ofthem civilians, relief agencies say.
It has triggered what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitariancrisis, with more than 24 million Yemenis — more than two-thirds of thepopulation — in need of aid.
On Thursday the Saudi campaign in Yemen suffered a double blow as USlawmakers voted to block Trump’s arms sales to Riyadh, just hours afterBritain temporarily suspended similar sales. -APP/AFP
