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Yemen's Houthis attack Saudi Arabia's Abha airport

Yemen rebels say four of its drones targeted Abha airport located around 120km from the border, leaving an aircraft in flames
The Houthis have previously hit Abha international airport, and regularly launch drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia (AFP)

Yemen's Houthi movement has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia that left a civilian aircraft on fire.

The Saudi-led coalition said it had later brought the fire under control.

The rebels said they had targeted the airport, located around 120 km from the border with Yemen, and which has been used by the coalition to launch attacks on Yemen, adding that four drones carried out the attack on Wednesday afternoon. 

"The UAV air force targeted the airfields of warplanes at Abha International Airport - which is used for military purposes to target the Yemeni people - with four drones," Yahya Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a tweet.

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The coalition said earlier on Wednesday that it had intercepted and destroyed two armed drones launched by the Iran-aligned rebels towards civilians in Saudi Arabia.

"The attempt to target Abha airport is a war crime and put civilian travellers' lives in danger," the coalition statement said, adding that the aircraft was on the ground at the time of the attack.

The Houthis, who control the north of the country including capital Sanaa, have previously hit Abha airport, and regularly launch drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia.

The coalition said on Sunday and Monday that it had intercepted drones fired by Houthis towards the kingdom.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the western-backed government fighting the Houthis.

Since then it has carried out more than 20,000 air strikes in an effort to roll back the rebels, with one-third striking non-military sites, including schools, factories and hospitals, according to the Yemen Data Project.

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