(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Jets from a Saudi-led alliance bombed the runway of Yemen's Sana'a airport yesterday to prevent an Iranian plane from landing there, Saudi Arabia said, as fighting across the country killed at least 30 people.
Airport officials said Saudi-led warplanes had struck a civilian aircraft operated by Yemeni Felix Airways, setting it ablaze, as well as a cargo plane. An official at the Yemeni civil aviation authority said the runway was targeted by 20 sorties that destroyed both the take-off and landing runway. The damage will further complicate humanitarian efforts to fly urgently needed aid into Yemen.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said air force planes bombed the runway to stop an Iranian flight landing after it refused to coordinate with the coalition and the pilot ignored orders to turn back. Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said the bombing of the runway made it unusable for planned aid flights.
Iranian state news agency IRNA, confirming the incident, said the pilots had ignored "illegal" warnings from Saudi jets to turn back before the runway was bombed. The agency said the plane was carrying humanitarian aid to Sana'a. Saudi Arabia had declared Yemen's airspace and coastline off limits to prevent delivery of arms supplies to the Houthis. A civil aviation official said the airport at the Red Sea city of Hodeidah had also been bombed, but the extent of the damage to the runway was not immediately clear.
Earlier, Saudi-led jets bombed a private villa that nearby residents said belonged to Abdullah Yahya Hakim, a senior Houthi official who was among a number of officials blacklisted by the UN Security Council in November.
Local residents also reported heavy clashes overnight in oil-producing Marib, in the city of Taiz, and in Aden.
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