The Saudi Arabian-led Coalition Successfully Destroys The Houthis' Drone Control Room

The Eurofighter Typhoon F2 fighter jet belonging to the Saudi Arabian Air Force. (Wikimedia Commons/Steve Lynes)

JAKARTA - A drone control operations room has been destroyed in an airstrike on a site in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

"The attack was in response to the military's threat and need to protect civilians," the coalition said on Friday, February 18.

On Monday, the coalition announced that it had destroyed the telecommunications system in Sanaa, which was used by the Houthis to control armed drones.

It said the latest operation was in response to a Houthi drone strike on Saudi Arabia's Abha international airport last week, which left 12 people injured.

Attacks by insurgents are becoming increasingly common, with air defense teams intercepting rockets and drones on an almost daily basis.

The Houthi drone and missile program, since the war began in 2015, has become increasingly sophisticated. Experts and officials say Yemen's rebels have been aided by Iran and its main representative Hezbollah.

Last weekend, a fleet of United States Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jets arrived at an air base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday, following an unprecedented spate of attacks in Abu Dhabi by Houthi fighters in Yemen.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the rapid deployment of the fifth-generation aircraft, in coordination with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, a statement by the United States Air Force Center said.

It will join the range of combined, coalition and partner combat air power capabilities already based across the region.

The airmen and F-22s were deployed from the 1st Fighter Wing, located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, the US Air Force said.

Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of Sanaa and much of the north of the country, forcing the government to flee south, then to Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, the coalition entered the war in March 2015, to try to restore President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to power.