Arab News

RIYADH: The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen on Monday said it has destroyed a Houthi communications system in Sanaa that was being used to control drones for hostile operations.

In a series of tweets, the Coalition said the communications system was located at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Yemeni capital.

“The Houthis are militarily using Yemeni state institutions and ministries to launch hostile operations,” it said, adding that the site had been linked to the February 10 drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport.

Twelve civilians were injured in the attack on the airport, located in the Kingdom’s southwestern border with Yemen.

Prior to launching a strike to take down the Houthi communication system, the Coalition took pains to call on civilians in the site to evacuate.

“We made a call via landline to one of the ministries and asked to evacuate civilians to a site in Sanaa,” the Coalition said.

Analysts say the Houthis have long evaded retaliatory strikes from Coalition forces by hiding behind populated areas and civilian facilities. The Coalition on Monday has said that subterfuge has to end.

“Cross-border attacks require more effective response within the framework of international law,” it said in its statement.

The Houthi militia, tagged as a proxy of Iran’s mullah regime, has also stepped up its attacks on civilian targets in the United Arab Emirates in January following battlefield victories by Yemeni government forces backed by the Coalition.

UAE-trained Yemeni forces known as the Giants Brigades have played key roles in driving the Houthis out of several cities and towns in central Yemen, inflicting heavy losses on the terrorist militia that had earlier seized wide swaths of territory since 2014.

The Coalition was organized in 2015 to restore the UN-recognized government of Prime Minister Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which sought exile in the Saudi capital.

Efforts by the UN to broker peace talks between the warring parties in Yemen have not prospered as the Houthis have refused to cooperate.