DUBAI (Reuters) – Three tankers carrying fuel were destroyed by drones on Monday near Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates, an attack claimed by the Yemeni Houthi movement which, according to Emirati authorities, caused three dead and six wounded.
According to the Emirati news agency WAM, which quoted the police, the three victims were two workers of Indian nationality and a Pakistani.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, are at war with an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and in which the United Arab Emirates participates. They regularly launch drone or missile attacks against their Saudi neighbor but have rarely targeted the Emirates, located very far from Yemen.
According to Emirati police, the trucks exploded in the Mousaffah industrial zone, near oil storage tanks, and the fire spread to a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
“Preliminary investigation has found small pieces of an aircraft that may be a drone at the two sites where the explosions appear to have occurred,” police said in a statement quoted by WAM news agency.
In Sanaa, the Houthis’ military spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack “in the heart of the United Arab Emirates” and promised more details later.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday that he condemned “with the greatest firmness” these attacks.
He called on the Houthis to put an end to their actions in Yemen and to engage in a political process to end the crisis.
“France reaffirms its mobilization in favor of a cessation of hostilities throughout the country and a relaunch of discussions with a view to a global political agreement under the aegis of the United Nations”, indicated Jean-Yves Le Drian in a statement.
The Emirates sharply reduced its involvement in the conflict in Yemen in 2019, for lack of a quick military solution, but it continues to arm and train forces hostile to the Houthis who recently launched an offensive against the oil-producing provinces of Shabwa and marib.
The Emirati authorities had so far denied all claims by the Houthis of attacks targeting their territory, against airports in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2018, as well as against a nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
(Report by Ghaida Ghantous, with RayaJalabi and Aziz El Yaakoubi; French version Tangi Salaün and Camille Raynaud, edited by Blandine Hénault and Nicolas Delame)