Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Arab coalition fighting the Iran-supported Houthi militants in Yemen, Friday evening destroyed an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) targeting Saudi Arabia, the latest such attack in recent weeks.

The coalition spokesman Col. Turki Al-Maliki said the alliance’s forces intercepted and destroyed the explosive UAV in the Yemeni airspace fired by the “terrorist” Houthi militia in the direction of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The drone targeted civil facilities and civilians in a “systematic and deliberate way,” the spokesman added.

Over recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has intercepted a string of explosive Houthi drones and missiles targeting its facilities.

Late last month, the Saudi-led coalition downed an explosive-laden drone targeting Abha airport in the Kingdom’s southwestern region of Asir.

Houthis plunged Yemen into a civil war in late 2014 when they toppled the internationally recognized government and overran parts of the country including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE initiated a military campaign in Yemen against the Houthis in response to a request from the government there.