UAE Drone Attack: Houthi Rebels Target Abu Dhabi Airport in Brutal Exchange

UAE Drone Attack: Houthi Rebels Target Abu Dhabi Airport in Brutal Exchange

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they are responsible for deadly drone attacks in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

One attack caused fires that saw three petroleum tankers explode near state oil firm ADNOC’s storage facilities, killing three people, while a second attack occured at a construction site near Abu Dhabi International Airport, according to an Abu Dhabi police statement cited by CNBC, disrupting flights.

The Houthis are thought to have been retaliating against the UAE’s increased role in the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting against it in the Yemen civil war, with the Yemeni Foreign Ministry saying it reflected “Houthi desperation after rebel defeats in Marib [c]and Shabwa [d]provinces.” In retaliation for this attack, Saudi coalition airstrikes killed 11 people in Yemen, including at least five civilians, according to the U.N.

The MIT Center for International Studies explains that the war, in which 377,000 people had died by the end of 2021 according to Al Jazeera, acts a sprawling proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and The Wall Street Journal says that although the Houthis have developed the ability to build drones using materials bought locally or sourced from intermediaries elsewhere, their longer-range weapons are either Iranian or based on Iranian designs.

Iran has denied arming the Houthis, while The Washington Post suggests that recent attempts by Iran to repair relations with other regional powers ‘raise questions’ about whether it ‘approved’ of Monday’s attack.