The UAE is a partner of the coalition that has been battling the Houthis since 2015, shortly after the group took over the Yemeni capital. On Monday, police in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, said that three petroleum tanker trunks had exploded near the city’s port and that a “minor fire” broke out at the city’s international airport. The police said initial investigations suggested drones may have been involved in the incidents. Two Indian nationals and one Pakistani were killed in the attacks, police said.
On Twitter, Hussein al-Ezzi, deputy foreign minister in Sanaa, said children were among those killed in the strikes on Sanaa.
Nasraddin Amer, the deputy minister of information in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, said the attacks on Abu Dhabi were in retaliation for the UAE’s “escalation” in the conflict in Yemen, where fighting has recently ramped up in the contested provinces of Shabwa and Marib. Earlier this month, the UAE-backed Giants Brigade, a Yemeni force, announced it had retaken control of Shabwa from the Houthis.
