Cairo, Oct 15. (dpa/GNA) – Yemen’s Houthi militia has attacked Riyadh’s international airport 20 times in the past two weeks, according to Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis.
Al-Maliki said that a total of 17 people had been killed and more than 330 injured in the attacks.
The Indian embassy in Riyadh had also reported one death in that period, which is why some reports spoke of 18 deaths at Riyadh airport.
Two people were also killed and 28 injured in a Houthi attack on Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, al-Maliki said. He called on the Iran-backed Houthis to “immediately stop their terrorist acts” targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Al-Maliki said that the coalition had carried out repeated strikes on Houthi targets in neighbouring Yemen, including on missile depots in the mountainous region around Sana’a.
Yemenās Houthi militia, meanwhile, on Thursday renewed its warning that Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe, with the exception of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that Saudi Arabia had carried out more than 274,000 airstrikes on Yemen over the past 12 years.
He described Houthi operations as ādefensiveā and said they would continue until Saudi Arabia halted what the group calls its aggression and blockade of Yemen.
The years-long conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen has flared up again in the course of the Iran war.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting alongside Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since 2015.
GNA