The Saudi Arabian Jizan airport was targeted in a drone attack by Yemen's Houthi movement, which was intercepted by the Saudi-led coalition's forces, a Saudi-led coalition spokesman said in a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency early on Saturday, Trend reports citing Sputnik.
Earlier, Houthi-run Masirah TV reported that the Iran-aligned movement had carried out drone attacks on military positions and aircraft hangars in the airport, according to Reuters.
The Houthi rebels also said that they carried out a drone attack on the airport in the city of Abha, which is located not far from the Yemeni border, Houthi-run TV channel Almasirah reported. Later, a Saudi-led coalition spokesman said that Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted a drone launched by Houthis at a residential area in Saudi Arabia's southern Asir region.
The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in the civil war in Yemen since March 2015, when it started to carry out airstrikes against armed Houthi rebels at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The United Nations has repeatedly called the Yemeni conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 24 million people – over 80 percent of the country’s population – currently in need of aid.
In December 2018, for the first time in several years, the parties to the conflict in Yemen met for negotiations, which was organized by the United Nations in Stockholm. They managed to reach a number of important agreements, in particular, to implement a ceasefire, exchange prisoners and open humanitarian corridors in the port city of Hodeidah.