Yemen's Houthis claim second 'drone attack' on Saudi airport in less than 48 hours

Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a second drone attack on Saudi Arabia's airport to retaliate against the Saudi-led coalition's "siege on the Yemeni people", a spokesperson for the group said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's Abha International Airport was the target of the second such Houthi attack in less than 48 hours.

The attack was in response to "the continued escalation by the forces of aggression and their siege of the great Yemeni people," Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militia said in a tweet.

"Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and blockade continues," Saree warned.

The group, which has controlled the capital Sanaa since 2014 despite a Saudi-led military coalition intervention, dispatched eight drones into the kingdom in a seperate attack on Sunday.

The more recent attack prompted a public response by the Saudi-led coalition. The official Saudi Press Agency cited a Spokesman for the coalition, Colonel Turki al-Maliki, confirming the attack and its interception.

Yemen has been locked in conflict since the Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014 and went on to seize much of the north. 

The crisis escalated when a Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to support Yemen's internationally-recognised government with waves of airstrikes that killed thousands and a blockade that has devastated the country.

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More than 100,000 people have been killed since the intervention, while millions have been displaced internally and externally.

Some 24 million Yemenis - four-fifths of the population - are dependent on some form of humanitarian aid.

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