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 the Emirates authorities dead and six wounded.
According to the Mirati 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 the Miratia police, the trucks exploded in the Mousaffah industrial area, near oil storage tanks, and the fire spread to a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
“The preliminary investigation has found small pieces of an aircraft that could be a drone on the two sites where the explosions seem to have occurred,” said the police in a statement quoted by the agency WAM.
In Sanaa, the Houthi military spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack “in the heart of the United Arab Emirates” and promised more details later.
The Emirates sharply reduced its participation 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.
Mirati authorities have so far denied all claims by the Houthis of attacks targeting their territory, including Abu Dhabi and Duba airports in 2018 and an Abu Dhabi nuclear power plant in 2017.
(Report by Ghaida Ghantous, with RayaJalabi and Aziz El Yaakoubi; French version Tangi Salan, told by Blandine Hnault)