Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said they launched a bomb-laden drone into Saudi Arabia, targeting an airport with a military base. The attack has been acknowledged by Saudi Arabia. No casualties or damage has been reported, agencies said.
The Houthis’ Almasirah satellite news channel on Tuesday said the attack targeted the airport in Najran with a Qasef-2K drone, striking an “arms depot”. Najran is on the Saudi-Yemeni border and is often a target of Houthis.
Saudi Press Agency quoted Saudi-led coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Maliki as saying the Houthis “had tried to target” a civilian site in Najran. He gave no further details. However, he warned there would be a “strong deterrent” to such attacks and described the Houthis as “terrorist militias of Iran”.
Najran, 840km southwest of Riyadh, lies on the Saudi-Yemen border and has repeatedly been targeted by the Houthis.
Houthi attacks in the past like the one on Tuesday have invited retaliation with Saudi-led air raids on Yemen. Several civilians have been killed in such retaliatory attacks. Last week, the Houthis launched a drone attack on a Saudi pipeline.