Saudi-led coalition says would make firm response to Houthi terrorist attack on Abha civilian airport

The Saudi-led military coalition said it would make
a firm response to a missile attack by Yemeni Houthi forces on a civilian
airport in southern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday which wounded 26 people.
The alliance that has been battling the Iran-aligned
Houthi movement in Yemen said the early morning attack proved Tehran's support
for what it called cross-border terrorism.
A coalition statement said a projectile hit the
arrivals hall at Abha airport, causing material damage.
Three women and two children were among the wounded,
who were of Saudi, Yemeni and Indian nationalities, it said. Eight people were
taken to hospital while most were treated on site.
The Houthi-run Masirah TV said earlier that Houthi
forces had launched a cruise missile attack on Abha airport, which is about 200
km (125 miles) north of the border with Yemen and serves domestic and regional
routes.
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation body told Reuters air
traffic was currently running normally at the airport.
The attack follows an armed drone strike last month
on two oil-pumping stations in the kingdom that were claimed by the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia accused Iran of ordering the attack, a
charge that Tehran and the Houthi movement deny.
The coalition said the attack could amount to a war
crime. It would take "urgent and timely" measures in response, it
said.
"This attack also proves this terrorist
militia's acquisition of new special weapons; the continuation of the Iranian
regime's support and practice of cross-border terrorism; and the continued
violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions," the coalition's
English-language statement said.
There was no immediate Iranian response.
A Houthi military spokesman on Tuesday threatened
that the group would target every airport in Saudi Arabia and that the coming
days would reveal "big surprises".
The alliance led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally
recognised government that was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by the
Houthis in late 2014.
The Houthis have previously targeted Saudi cities
with drones and missiles, most of which have been intercepted. In March 2018 an
Egyptian was killed in the capital Riyadh by missile shrapnel.
The Houthi group last month stepped up its attacks
following a lull last year ahead of U.N.-led peace efforts. The coalition has
responded in the past by carrying out air strikes on Houthi military sites in
and around Sanaa.
Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed
al-Khalifa said the attack on Abha airport "was a serious escalation
carried out by Iranian weapons".
A clear and firm international stance is needed
against Houthi terrorism and the Iranian support which is available to
it," he said in a Twitter post.
The strike took place against a backdrop of
heightened U.S.-Iranian tension following Washington's move to tighten
sanctions on Tehran and to reinforce its military presence in the Gulf in
response to what it called Iranian threats.
The escalation in violence could threaten a fragile
U.N.-led peace initiative in Yemen's main port city of Hodeidah, which handles
the bulk of the impoverished country's commercial and aid imports and is a
lifeline for millions of Yemenis.