Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the latest Houthi attack an act of sabotage.
Qatar has condemned an attempted attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a violation of all international norms and laws.
The Saudi-led military coalition said it intercepted an explosive-laden drone headed towards the city of Khamis Mushait late on Saturday.
“The State of Qatar voiced strong condemnation and denunciation of the attempt to target the city of Khamis Mushait in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” MoFA said in a statement.
In a tweet earlier on Sunday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said an operation targeting the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait recorded an accurate hit.
Meanwhile, video footage published by the rebels purportedly showed an incursion by its soldiers into a Saudi border area on the front lines. However, the coalition dismissed this as a fabrication.
Houthi-run Al Masirah television cited a military source confirming that more than 80 Saudi soldiers and Sudanese “mercenaries” were killed or injured, while tens were captured in the Houthi-led operation near al-Khoubah in the southern Saudi region of Jazan.
“Claims by the Houthi militia about executing a military operation on the Jazan border are media fabrications,” Saudi state television cited coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Malki as saying.
Malki said the Houthis’ “imaginary victories” aimed to cover up big military losses in the Marib and al-Jawf regions.
Read also: Could Saudi Arabia finally be ready to end its war in Yemen?
A call for a ceasefire
In 2014, the Houthis overran all government institutions in Sanaa and gained control of the city, forcing the internationally-recognised government to flee to Aden.
The Saudi-led coalition then launched a military intervention to push back the rebels in a bid to reinstate the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
However, seven years on, at least 233,000 Yemenis have been killed in the past six years, among them 131,000 who died as a result of malnutrition, lack of healthcare and medicine.
It is estimated that more than 16 million people will go hungry this year due to the dire conditions that have been imposed on the country due to the ongoing war.
It is also estimated that 400,000 Yemeni children below the age of five could die from acute malnutrition.
The United Nations and the United States are now calling for a ceasefire to end the almost seven-year-old conflict.
In February, the Biden administration announced it was halting its support for the Saudi-led coalition in a decision that involves stopping arms sales to the kingdom’s military.
