Houthis Strike Saudi Airport, Escalating Yemen Conflict
Houthis Strike Saudi Airport, Escalating Yemen Conflict by Vivian Yee – New York Times
Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an airport in southern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, wounding 26 people in the latest escalation of a four-year-old conflict that threatens to further strain relations between the United States and Iran.
A Houthi official, Mohamed Abdul Salam, said the strike was in retaliation for the Saudi-led coalition’s continued “aggression and blockade,” against Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, which considers the Houthis Iranian proxies, described the attack as a “continuation of the Iranian regime’s support and practice of cross-border terrorism” and vowed to retaliate.
The violence has escalated in the last few weeks, imperiling a brittle cease-fire agreement, and the Saudi-led military coalition has tightened its blockade of a major seaport and the airport in Sana, the Houthi-controlled capital. On Monday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that its coalition had “intensified” air raids on the Houthis in northwest Yemen…