Saudi TV: Yemen rebel attack on airport sets plane on fire

Saudi state TV says that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have targeted Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire

Saudi Arabia Yemen (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire the kingdom's state television reported, an attack that threatens to escalate Yemen s grinding war.

Firefighters brought the blaze at Abha airport under control, Saudi state-owned Al-Ekhbariya TV said, without offering word on possible casualties from the assault. Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack soon afterward, with military spokesman Yehia Sareai saying the group used four bomb-laden drones to target the airport.

“This targeting comes in response to the continued aerial bombardment and the brutal siege on our country,” Sareai said, stressing that the Houthis consider the airport a military not civilian target.

Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, said the forces intercepted and destroyed two of bomb-laden drones launched by Houthis toward the country's south. He condemned the assault as a “systematic and deliberate attempt to target civilians."

Since 2015, the Houthis battling the Saudi-led military coalition have repeatedly targeted international airports, along with military installations and critical oil infrastructure, within Saudi Arabia. The Houthis long have used drones against Saudi Arabia, including crashing them into the kingdom’s Patriot missile batteries. Those attacks, often striking near the southern cities of Abha and Jizan, have wounded dozens and killed at least one person over recent years.

In November 2017, the Houthis even reached Riyadh’s international airport, deep inside the kingdom. No one was hurt in the attack, which marked the first time that a Houthi missile had come so close to a heavily populated center. Riyadh is around 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) north of the border with Yemen.

Saudi officials have blamed Iran for providing ballistic missiles to the Houthis used in such attacks against the kingdom. Tehran denies arming to the Houthis, despite evidence to the contrary.

The attack late Wednesday afternoon marked the first to impact a civilian aircraft at the facility, although the extent of the damage remains unclear. Flight-tracking websites showed delayed and canceled flights scheduled to either take off or land at the airport. Flights at Abha airport resumed some time after the attack.

At least two Airbus A320s flown by Saudia, the kingdom’s flagship carrier, were on the tarmac at Abha on Wednesday afternoon, according to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. Another Airbus A320 on the ground belonged to low-cost carrier FlyADeal. The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Air Force’s Central Command, based at Al-Udeid Air Base in neighboring Qatar, declined to comment.

As recently as late January, U.S. forces stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh trained Saudi troops on how to counter the threat posed by drones, which can fly low to the ground, evade radar and detonate against targets in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has been at war with the Houthis in Yemen for nearly six years, a conflict that started when the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, intervened in March 2015 to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government. The war has devastated the impoverished country and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

President Joe Biden has recently turned a spotlight on the brutal war, declaring last week that the United States would end its support of the Saudi-led military offensive, including “relevant” arms sales. The administration has also moved to lift a terrorist designation against the Houthis, citing the need to mitigate Yemen's humanitarian crisis.

But Biden stressed that the U.S. would continue to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against outside attacks, as part of maintaining key security, counterterrorism and military ties with the kingdom, a strategic partner and global oil giant.

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.