The Saudi-led coalition has launched an air raid on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, saying it was a response to the earlier attack by “Iran-backed” Houthi “terrorist” on Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi state media announced the raid on Monday evening, saying that the coalition’s F-15 fighters targeted and destroyed two ballistic missile launchers, allegedly used in the strike against the UAE.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Monday that the militia, which controls the Yemeni capital, used five “ballistic and winged missiles” and “a large number of drones” to target “a number of important and sensitive Emirati sites and facilities,” including the airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Saree added that the “successful” operation was “in retaliation to the escalation of the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression” and that UAE will remain an “unsafe state as long as its aggressive escalation against Yemen continues.”
Emirati authorities said two Indian nationals and a Pakistani were killed, and six more people were injured in the attacks. They said several fuel trucks exploded in the industrial area of Mussafah near the Abu Dhabi International Airport, starting a “minor fire.”
Saudi Arabia called the strike a “terrorist attack” by the “terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia” that amounted to a war crime against civilians, according to Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman of the Saudi-led ‘Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen.’
Al-Maliki called the Houthis a terrorist threat undermining regional and international security, whose “piracy” also threatens trade and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. The coalition will respond “in a manner that achieves collective security for the interests of the international community,” he added.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan echoed the Saudis, condemning the attack on UAE and saying Washington will “work to ensure that the Iranian-backed Yemen rebels are held accountable for their actions.”
The US has provided logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition since it invaded Yemen in 2015, seeking to reinstate President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, ousted by the Houthis the year prior.
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