Community Desk Report: Four Bangladeshis are among 12 people injured at Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport by shrapnel from an explosive-laden drone intercepted by air defences on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said.
It stated that the injured are of different nationalities, among them are four Bangladeshi, three Nepali, two Saudis, one Indian, a Filipino and a Sir Lankan, reports Saudi Gazette.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group hit a military target at Abha airport with a Qasef 2 drone.
Debris from the intercepted drone reportedly fell within the vicinity of the airport.
Air traffic had returned to normal about an hour after the initial report of the drone attack, the coalition said.
“We will take firm operational measures in response to the threat against civilian airports and travellers,” a coalition spokesperson said in a statement carried out by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since early 2015, after the group ousted Yemen’s internationally recognised government from power in Sanaa.
The Houthis often launch attacks on Abha airport, which lies close to the Yemeni border in Saudi Arabia’s south, and other parts of the country with drones and missiles. Most attacks are intercepted but a few people have been killed and several injured.
The coalition regularly carries out airstrikes on what it says are Houthi military targets in Yemen. On Thursday it said it would take measures to neutralize the source of threats to civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law.
