Coalition to strike Houthis after launching armed drone against Saudi Arabia
The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen on Monday repeated accusations to the Iran-backed Houthis of militarizing civilian facilities after they launched an explosives-laden drone from Sanaa airport aimed at Saudi Arabia.
The coalition said in a brief statement that the explosives-rigged drone, which hit a village in Saudi Arabia’s southern city of Jazan on Monday, was launched by the Houthis from Sanaa airport.
“In response to the threat, a military operation will be carried out to neutralize the specific capabilities of the Houthis,” the coalition said in a statement carried by a Saudi news agency.
In Yemen, government and military officials blasted the Houthis for turning civilian facilities into bases for launching deadly drone and missile strikes at cities in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Abdu Abdullah Majili, a Yemeni army spokesperson, told Arab News on Monday that the Houthi attacks from Sanaa airport risk the immunity of those sites granted by the coalition.
“The terrorist and putschist Houthi militia continues launching ballistic missiles and bomb and surveillance drones from Sanaa airport. These activities would strip Sanaa airport of immunity,” Majili said, renewing his government’s calls to name the Houthis a terrorist organization for targeting densely populated cities, including Marib city, with missiles and drones.
During the last several months, the coalition has threatened many times to remove Sanaa airport and the Red Sea Hodeidah seaport from the no-target list after the Houthis used them for military purposes, including firing missiles and drones and smuggling weapons.
On Sunday, seven missiles fired by the Houthis struck different areas in Yemen’s central city of Marib, which hosts hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people.
The Yemeni government strongly favors designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization, arguing that the designation would curb the Houthis’ destructive military operations and activities.
The coalition is making good on its threat to target Houthi military sites, with fighting between government troops and the Houthis breaking out on Monday in flashpoint sites in the central province of Marib and the northern province of Hajjah.
The heaviest battles occurred in Hajjah’s Haredh and Abes districts, where the Houthis launched large-scale counterattacks to take control of strategic locations controlled by the Yemeni government.
Dozens of combatants were killed in the fierce fighting amid intensive airstrikes by coalition warplanes in support of government forces.
The coalition on Monday declared carrying out 45 airstrikes that destroyed 14 Houthi military vehicles and killed many Houthis in the province of Hajjah.