Yemen’s Houthis threaten Saudi Arabia after airstrike | News about the Houthis

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The Yemeni army says it encountered Saudi ‘warplanes’ which it says tried to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in Sanaa.

Yemen’s Houthis are threatening Saudi Arabia’s airports and vital assets if Riyadh violates its airspace or tries to attack it, while Iran-backed rebels have accused the kingdom of airstrikes.

Yemen’s military said on Friday it encountered Saudi “warplanes” that it said tried to prevent an Iranian civilian plane from landing at Sanaa International Airport.

“We warn the terrorist enemy of Saudi Arabia not to repeat any attempt to violate our airspace or any aggression targeting our country. Such actions will be answered with a comprehensive response targeting the airports and important land and sea,” the Houthi spokesman, Yahya Saree, said in a video.

Saree said the rebels thwarted an attempt by Saudi warplanes to “enter” Houthi-controlled airspace at 5:20am (02:20 GMT) in order to “stop an Iranian plane carrying more than 200 wounded, injured and sick people” from reaching Sanaa.

Flights between Sanaa and Tehran will continue despite any “consequences”, he added.

Houthi journalists earlier reported that the plane had landed safely, adding that it had returned to Tehran carrying a Houthi delegation that was to attend the funeral of former Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike that sparked the Iran war.

The militants said the fighters were ready for “any means” and that their “fingers are on the line to carry out the instructions they want to deal with the Saudi-American camp”, without giving further details.

The renewed threats came months after the Saudi-backed government and the Houthis agreed to a major prisoner exchange, confirmed in May, that included seven Saudi nationals.

The Houthis have been fighting the Yemeni government since 2015 in a war that has killed thousands of people and created a major humanitarian crisis in the country.

Houthi rebels control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and much of the north, including many residential areas, while the internationally recognized government is in the south.

The fighting between the two sides has been suspended since the United Nations negotiated in 2022.