Arab coalition warns of ‘painful’ response over Yemen drones

RIYADH: A Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Huthi rebels warned them on Monday of a “painful” response if they mounted new attacks on Saudi Arabia using what it said were Iransupplied drones.

Riyadh said last week it had shot down two drones in the south of the kingdom as well as intercepting ballistic missiles fired from rebel-held parts of Yemen, the latest in a series of similar incidents.

“If the Huthis continue targeting industrial or residential facilities, the response will be hard and painful,” said coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki, displaying what he claimed were remnants of the intercepted aircraft.

In a sign of defiance, the rebels on Monday fired a new missile towards southern Najran province, which was intercepted by Saudi air defence, the kingdom’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV reported.

Malki said in the eastern city of Al-Khobar that the airport of rebel-held capital Sanaa was used as a military base to orchestrate the drone strike.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government last week said the drones were “made in Iran”, adding that Yemen’s military did not possess such aircraft and it was “impossible to manufacture them locally”.

Iran backs the Huthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military coalition to intervene against the rebels the following year.

But Teheran has repeatedly denied arming the rebels, which would violate a United Nations weapons embargo slapped on Yemen in 2015.