Yemeni Forces Target Saudi Abha International Airport in Latest Retaliatory Op

By Staff, Agencies

The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces announced that a drone operation has been carried out against Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in retaliation for the Riyadh regime’s ongoing military aggression and all-out blockade against the war-torn Arab country.

Brigadier General Yehya Saree said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that the Yemeni army and allied fighters from Popular Committees used a domestically-manufactured Qasef-2K combat drone in the operation.

Saree added that the unmanned aerial vehicle struck a designated important military site at the airport with great precision, noting that Abha Airport is among the sites where Saudi-led airstrikes against Yemen originate from.

The senior Yemeni military official then renewed his appeal to Saudi nationals and foreign workers to stay away from military sites in the kingdom.

The Saudi-led coalition, which has been waging a devastating war on Yemen, also announced in a statement that the strike led to the disruption of air traffic at Abha Airport.

The statement alleged that Saudi Arabia’s air missile system intercepted and struck the Yemeni unmanned aerial vehicle.

It further asserted that twelve people, including travelers and workers of various nationalities, were injured at the airport by shrapnel from the targeted drone.

The development came only a few hours after Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters, intercepted and shot down a Saudi spying drone as it was flying in the skies over Yemen’s northern province of Hajjah.

Saree said in a tweet early Thursday that Yemeni air defense forces targeted the Chinese-made CH-4 drone with a surface-to-air missile as it was carrying out hostile acts over the Harad district.

The CH-4 drone has a range of 3,500 to 5,000 kilometers and a 30- to 40-hour endurance. It is capable of carrying six missiles and a payload of up to 250 to 345 kilograms.

The UAV can fire air-to-ground missiles from an altitude of 5,000 meters, enabling it to stay out of the effective range of most anti-aircraft guns.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies, backed by the United States and European powers, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah resistance movement.

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.

Despite heavily-armed Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished country, the Yemeni armed forces have gradually grown stronger, leaving Riyadh and its allies, most notably the UAE, bogged down in the country.