Saudi Arabia announced Monday the destruction of a drone targeting an airport in the south of the kingdom and whose debris injured 16 civilians, a new attack attributed by Riyadh to Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen ravaged by war.
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Backed by Iran, the Houthis regularly launch attacks on the oil-rich monarchy, which has been intervening in Yemen since 2015 at the head of a military coalition to support pro-government forces against the rebels.
“
A drone launched in the direction of King Abdullah airport in Jazan was destroyed, debris fell in the airport
”, announced the coalition, quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA.
Sixteen civilians injured
"
Sixteen civilians of different nationalities were injured
," she added, accusing the Yemeni rebels of "
again launching cross-border attacks from Sanaa airport
".
The coalition accuses the rebels of militarizing this airport in the capital of Yemen which they control, like the vast majority of the north of this poor country on the Arabian Peninsula.
Read alsoSaudi Arabia launches large-scale military operation in Yemen after attack on its soil
As after every attack, the coalition promised "
firm measures
" against the Houthis.
On February 14, she announced that she had destroyed a communication system she said was used for rebel drone attacks and located near the Ministry of Communications in Sanaa.
These raids had intervened in "
response
" to the attack a few days earlier of the airport of Abha, located in the south-west of Saudi Arabia, which had injured 12 people.
Earlier on Monday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced that a bombardment in northern Yemen had killed a 12-year-old girl and a 50-year-old woman and injured ten other people, "
mostly women and children, including a pregnant woman
.
"
We are deeply concerned about the terrible consequences of indiscriminate attacks
," the humanitarian organization said in a statement, calling on all belligerents to "
protect civilian lives
."
Read alsoFive dead in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in rebel and coalition strikes
The Saudi coalition, of which the United Arab Emirates is also a member, is regularly accused by the UN and NGOs of causing numerous civilian victims in its air raids.
The war in Yemen was triggered in 2014 with the capture of Sanaa by the rebels.
In more than seven years, it has caused the death of nearly 380,000 people, according to the UN.
More than half of the deaths are due to the indirect consequences of the fighting, such as hunger and disease.