Houthis launch drone attack at Saudi air base

Sanaa, May 10 (IANS) Yemen's Houthi militia said they attacked the King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia's southwestern city of Khamis Mushait with an explosive-laden drone."The hit was precise," the group's military spokesman Yehya Sarea was quoted as saying on Sunday by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV as saying.Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed an armed drone the Houthi militia fired from Yemen to Khamis Mushait.Cross-border missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis have escalated since February when the group began a major offensive against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government army to capture the oil-rich province of Marib.On May 5, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said a recent UN-brokered negotiation between Yemen's warring sides and other relevant parties has failed to produce any agreement of ceasefire.Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.
--IANS ksk/