Saudi-Led Coalition Reportedly Eliminates Drone Seeking to Target Yemeni Airport

On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition announced that they were conducting "precise and specific" airstrikes on Houthi targets at Yemen's Sana'a airport "in accordance with international and humanitarian law".

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday that they had destroyed an armed drone which tried to target the Abha International Airport in Yemen, according to the news network al-Arabiya TV.

The coalition, which is fighting the Houthi group in Yemen, argued that the drone debris did not cause any injuries.

This comes as Saudi state TV reported that the coalition eliminated a military camp in the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sana'a earlier on Thursday, also hitting a prison compound and a hospital.

At least seven drone and weapons stores were reportedly destroyed at the military camp, as a response to an armed drone being launched from northern Yemen towards the Saudi Red Sea region of Jizan.

The Houthis, for their part, said in a statement that the coalition's airstrike damaged the prison housing more than 3,000 coalition fighters captured in combat.

Yemen has been gripped by a conflict between government forces led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi Ansar Allah movement for nearly seven years. The situation in the country was further complicated after Saudi Arabia joined the conflict on the side of Yemen's government in 2015, launching air, land, and sea operations against the Islamist rebel movement.

Since February 2020, the Houthis have been carrying out a large-scale operation against the Yemeni Army in Marib to gain control over the province, which is also a political, military, and economic centre.