Al Jazeera :
At least three people have been killed and six others wounded when three oil tankers exploded in Abu Dhabi in a suspected drone attack, according to Emirati authorities, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced an operation “deep” in the United Arab Emirates.
Abu Dhabi police said on Monday three fuel tanker trucks had exploded in the industrial Musaffah area, near storage facilities of oil firm ADNOC, and that a fire had also broken out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. It did not identify the wounded, whom it said suffered minor or moderate wounds.
“Preliminary investigations indicate the detection of small flying objects, possibly belonging to drones, that fell in the two areas and may have caused the explosion and fire,” the police said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM, adding that they had opened an investigation.
Meanwhile, the military spokesman of the Houthis, who are battling a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and including the UAE, said the group had launched a military operation “deep in the UAE”. More details would be announced in the coming hours, the spokesman added.
The UAE had largely scaled down its military presence in Yemen in 2019 but continues to hold sway through Yemeni forces it armed and trained.
The Houthis have used bomb-laden drones to launch crude and imprecise attacks at Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The group has also launched missiles at Saudi airports, oil facilities and pipelines, as well as used booby-trapped boats for attacks on key shipping routes.
Yemen’s government-aligned forces, aided by the UAE-backed Giants Brigades and with help from Saudi air raids, reclaimed the entire southern province of Shabwa from the Houthis earlier this month and made advances in nearby Marib province.
Reporting from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, Mohammed al-Attab quoted the Houthis’ minister of information as saying that the “attack inside the United Arab Emirates is to teach them a lesson, in order to stop their involvement and participation in the Saudi-led coalition”.
The Houthis’ latest statement comes two weeks after they seized a UAE-flagged ship off the Yemen coast, and released footage purporting to show military equipment on board.
The UAE said the Rwabee, whose 11 crew are now hostages, was a “civilian cargo vessel” and called the hijacking a “dangerous escalation” in the busy Red Sea shipping route.
The Houthis later rejected a UN Security Council demand for the ship’s immediate release, saying it was “not carrying … toys for children but weapons for extremists”.
Yemen’s years-long conflict has caused what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving many on the brink of of famine.
“The humanitarian crisis further continues to deteriorate,” al-Attab said. “The Yemeni people continue to suffer from the shortage of fuel and lack of opportunities.”
