The Saudi-led coalition said - today, Thursday - that it will bomb "critical points" in the Yemeni capital from which the Houthis launch drones, after the Houthi group bombed today Abha International Airport in the south of the kingdom with a march, wounding 12 civilians.
The coalition called on civilians in Sana'a to evacuate civilian sites used militarily during the next 72 hours, and stressed that it would take "firm operational measures, in response to the threat of targeting civilian airports and travelers."
The coalition added that it launched 18 targeting operations against the Houthis in the governorates of Ma'rib and Hajjah during the past 24 hours, which resulted in the destruction of 12 military vehicles and human losses in the ranks of the group.
wounded by shrapnel
The coalition stated - in a statement - that the Saudi air defenses destroyed today, Thursday, a Houthi march laden with explosives that was launched towards Abha Airport, and fragments of it fell in the vicinity of the airport, as a result of which 12 civilians of different nationalities were injured, including two Saudis, 4 from Bangladesh, and 3 from Nepal. Indian, Filipino, and Sri Lankan.
The coalition said that air traffic returned to normal at Abha Civil Airport after taking the usual security measures following the interception of the march, and stated that the Houthis' targeting of civilian airports is a "war crime" and "an intransigence that cannot be condoned and requires deterrence."
Traces of a previous Houthi attack on Abha airport last August (Reuters)
On the other hand, the Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that the movement bombed a military target at Abha airport with a Qasef 2 (K2) drone, and the hit was accurate, he said.
Brigadier General Saree added - in a tweet on Twitter - that Abha Airport is one of the airports used for military actions against Yemen, calling on Saudi citizens to stay away from military sites.
Commenting on the Abha airport attack, the former advisor at the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Salem Al-Yami, said that the coalition's announcement of a response to the Houthi attacks means that any attack by them will not pass without a response, as he put it.
military purposes
While the head of the Houthi-affiliated Saba News Agency, Nasr al-Din Amer, said that the Houthi side will continue to attack Saudi targets when it is able to do so, including Abha airport, which he said is being used for military purposes, as he put it.
The coalition has been fighting the Houthi movement since early 2015, after the group drove the internationally recognized Yemeni government from the capital, Sanaa, and took control of it.
The Houthis frequently target Abha airport, located near the Yemeni border in the south of the kingdom, and other areas with drones and missiles.
Most of the attacks are intercepted, but some of them have caused a small number of casualties, and the coalition is constantly launching air strikes on what it says are Houthi military targets in Yemen.
And last January, the UAE - a member of the coalition - said that its forces destroyed an area in Yemen for launching missiles belonging to the Houthis, after unprecedented attacks by drones and missiles on the UAE this year, for which the Houthis claimed responsibility.
Until the end of 2021, the war in Yemen killed 377,000 people directly and indirectly, costing Yemen's economy 126 billion dollars, and most of the population - about 30 million people - now dependent on aid, in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the United Nations.