News / Yemen

Yemeni forces fire ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport

Thursday, 16 February 2017 6:35 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 16 February 2017 7:08 AM ]

This photo provided by the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen shows a missile launched on February 15, 2017.

Yemeni army forces and allied fighters have fired a ballistic missile at an airport inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the kingdom's bombing of a funeral which killed at least nine civilians on Wednesday.

A Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the medium-range projectile was fired at the Abha airport in the kingdom’s southwestern region of Asir on Wednesday evening.

The source said the missile struck its designated target precisely but there were no immediate reports on the extent of damage or possible casualties.

The attack came only hours after Saudi warplanes attacked a funeral in the Arhab district of the western province of Sana'a, leaving at least eight women and a child dead. Ten other women were critically wounded.

A medic said the death toll was likely to increase as some of the injured victims were in a critical condition.

This photo provided by the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen shows the aftermath of a Saudi airstrike on a funeral in the Arhab district of Yemen late on February 15, 2017.

The house where the funeral was being held was completely destroyed and scores of homes nearby were damaged.

Earlier this month, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters hit a military base in western Riyadh with a missile for the first time but the kingdom chose to keep silent about the attack.

This photo provided by the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen shows a Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile.

According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, the Saudi military campaign has claimed the lives of 10,000 Yemenis and left 40,000 others wounded.

McGoldrick told reporters in Sana’a last month that the figure was based on casualty counts given by health facilities and that the actual number might be higher.

Local sources say the Saudi war, which was launched in March 2015 in an attempt to bring back the country's former government to power, has so far claimed the lives of at least 11,400 Yemenis.

The Saudi military aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

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