Yemen’s Houthi militia said they attacked the King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern city of Khamis Mushait with an explosive-laden drone at dawn on Sunday.
“The hit was precise,’’ Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea was quoted by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV as saying.
Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed an armed drone the Houthi militia fired from Yemen to Khamis Mushait.
Cross-border missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis have escalated since February when the group began a major offensive against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government army to capture the oil-rich province of Marib in central Yemen.
Earlier, on Wednesday, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said a recent UN-brokered negotiation between Yemen’s warring sides and other relevant parties had failed to produce any agreement of cease-fire.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several Northern provinces and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi’s government.
NAN
