THE Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it today shot down a bomb-laden drone targeting an airport in the kingdom, causing debris to fall nearby but leaving no casualties.

The coalition, which is supporting the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, did not immediately say who may have been behind the attack, but it often blames the insurgents for such incidents.

“The coalition destroyed a booby-trapped drone that attempted to target Abha airport in the south of the country,” it said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

“Debris fell near the airport without causing any injuries.”

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014, pitting the Huthis against the Arabian Peninsula country’s internationally recognised government.

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Al-Ekhbariya television said there had been no interruption to air traffic today.

“The debris fell far from where there would be passengers,” an airport official told AFP, adding that flights were uninterrupted. 

Today’s incident comes as the coalition ramps up air strikes on Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa.

The Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones into neighbouring Saudi Arabia targeting its airports and oil infrastructure.

Yesterday, the coalition said it targeted a Huthi military camp in Sanaa, destroying seven drone and weapons storehouses, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Earlier this week, it targeted Sanaa airport, whose operations have largely ceased because of a Saudi-led blockade since August 2016, with exemptions for aid flights.

The United Nations estimates Yemen’s war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.

More than 80% of Yemen’s population of about 30 million require humanitarian assistance. – AFP, December 23, 2021.