Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it struck Sanaa airport Monday, as the Houthis blamed the government’s Saudi backers for the attack, in the biggest escalation in years between authorities and the Iran-backed rebels.
The government said it had wanted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in the Yemeni capital, after it failed to convince the Houthi delegation that went to Tehran for the funeral of Iran’s slain supreme leader to board a Yemenia flight instead.
“The terrorist Houthi militias — backed by the Iranian regime — prevented Yemeni national aircraft from landing at the airport in the capital, Sanaa, while insisting on allowing an Iranian plane to violate Yemeni territory; consequently, the airport runway was targeted,” the Yemeni defense ministry said.
Earlier on Monday, the government’s defense minister said it had exhausted diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran and the Houthis to stop what he described as Iranian aircraft violating Yemeni airspace. He said government forces would respond to any hostile aircraft violating Yemen’s airspace “by all available means,” and held Iran responsible.
Moammar bin Mutahar Al-Eryan, the information minister in the internationally recognized government, additionally said the Houthis were detaining an aircraft belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Sanaa airport and holding its pilot and co-pilot.
