RIYADH: The Arab coalition said on Monday that the Houthi militia in Yemen have turned Sanaa airport into a military base for experiments and cross-border attacks.
Video footage released by the coalition showed the Iran-backed Houthis carrying out training exercises on UN planes, with the intent of testing a missile air system, Saudi state TV reported.
The video appears to show the Houthi fighters performing experiments and tests on an air system during take-off and landing at Sanaa International Airport, including simulations of intercepting and destroying moving air targets.
The video also shows what is believed to be a foreign expert supervising the testing process and conducting a live missile launch test with the Houthis. The Arab coalition said this is further evidence showing the involvement of elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah in transferring knowledge and providing support and training to militias.
The coalition said the video proves the Houthis had turned the airport into a military barracks that includes workshops, booby-traps, and ballistic missiles and drones storage.
Commenting on the footage, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki told Al Arabiya TV: “Iran has transformed the airport of the Yemeni capital into a military base after it established an air bridge in 2014 at a rate of 28 flights per week from Tehran to Sanaa via Iranian Airlines Mahan Air and transported all types of weapons, including qualitative ones, to its Houthi followers.”
Al-Maliki added that the airport is now being used to target civilians and civilian objects inside Yemen and has become a major launch site for hostile cross-border attacks.
The airport’s air space remains open to UN aircraft and international NGOs to transport humanitarian and relief aid, as well as humanitarian workers to Sanaa, so these tests represent a direct threat to the safety of UN and international organizations’ aircraft and employees, and endanger their lives, the coalition said.
Meanwhile, the coalition said earlier on Monday it carried out 22 operations targeting the Houthi militia in Marib during the past 24 hours, destroying 16 military vehicles, and killing 115 terrorist elements.
The coalition also announced it is implementing five operations on the western coast, including targeting military vehicles and a ballistic missile storage site.
