Yemen's Houthis deny launching drones towards Saudi Arabia's Medina

REUTERS -- Yemen’s Houthis said that they had neither launched drones towards the Saudi holy city of Medina on Wednesday nor conducted military operations towards Saudi Arabia, refuting earlier comments from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The comments by the Houthis spokesperson Yahya Saree follow the coalition saying that it had intercepted drones over Medina and the Eastern region.

The Houthis had warned airlines this month against using the Saudi airspace as they intensified attacks on the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, saying only the airspace over Islam’s holy cities of Makkah and Medina would be exempted.

The Houthis have attacked Riyadh’s international airport and state oil giant Saudi Aramco, disrupting flights and oil exports.

Yemen, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has been mired in a civil war since 2014 when the Houthis drove the government out of the northern capital, drawing Saudi-led military intervention.

Renewed fighting in recent weeks ended a 2022 UN-brokered truce that had largely halted cross-border attacks between a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthis, who controls the capital Sanaa. The escalation has opened another front in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Within Yemen, the Houthis claimed an attack on Wednesday on a military camp near the airport in the southern city of Aden, where the Yemeni government is based. A government military source and a local official told Reuters the group also attacked Riyan airport in the southeastern coastal city of Mukalla.

A Houthi missile attack on a government security forces training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Monday killed 73 people.