Eight wounded in Houthi drone strikes on Saudi Abha airport

[August 31, 2021]  CAIRO (Reuters) - At least eight people were wounded on Monday in Houthi drone strikes on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport that also damaged a civilian airplane, Saudi state TV reported.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said earlier that it intercepted a Houthi drone that was targeting Abha International Airport.

Shrapnel was scattered in the vicinity of the airport, the coalition said.

Ekhbaria TV said a second armed drone was intercepted, but debris wounded eight people and damaged a civilian airplane inside the airport. It did not give further details.

The Houthis did not claim responsibility for the attack, but the Iran-aligned group regularly fires drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing forces of the ousted government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fighting the Houthis.

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Omar Fahmy; Editing by Tom Hogue and Alex Richardson)

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