RIYADH (IINA) – Saudi Arabia halted flights at seven airports near the Yemeni border on Thursday while Egypt stopped air traffic to the Arab country as Operation “Decisive Storm” continued.
“The General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia announced a temporary suspension of international and domestic flights to and from airports in the south of the Kingdom,” from dawn on Thursday, the civil aviation department said in a statement. Flights have been halted at Jazan, Abha, Wadi al-Dawasir, Bisha, Sharurah, Najran, and Al-Baha “until further notice.”
Meanwhile, air traffic between Egypt and Yemen has been halted as Operation “Decisive Storm” continues, airport officials told Aswat Masriya news website. Egypt received the last flight from Yemen late on Wednesday, officials added, before the launch of Saudi-led military operation.
The state news agency said on Thursday that Egypt is providing political and military support for the Saudi-led operation. Saudi warplanes bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday, as the kingdom said it had assembled a coalition of more than 10 countries to check the rebels’ advance on the Aden stronghold of embattled President Abbd-Rabbo Mansur Hadi and prevent his fall.
The rebels and their allies within the armed forces had been closing in on the southern port city where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the rebel-controlled capital Sana’a last month. The advance had raised fears in Saudi Arabia that the Shiite minority rebels would seize control of the whole of its Sunni-majority neighbor and take it into the orbit of regional rival Iran.