Hundreds of Yemen pilgrims stuck in KSA after Houthis seize Yemenia planes

At least 1,000 Yemeni pilgrims are stranded in Saudi Arabia after the Houthis seized Yemenia Airways flights that would carry them from the Kingdom to Houthi-held Sanaa, the Yemeni government said on Saturday.

Last week, the Houthis seized three Yemenia aircraft at Sanaa airport and prevented them from returning to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah airport to carry Yemeni pilgrims home, causing the Yemeni government to accuse the Houthis of “hijacking” the planes and worsening Yemenis’ misery.

The Houthi Ministry of Transportation admitted on Thursday that the planes were seized, and vowed to take control of Yemenia Airways, reschedule flights from Yemeni airports, including those controlled by the Yemeni government, and repair planes at Sanaa Airport, accusing the Yemeni government of plundering the company’s revenues.

The internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council on Friday formed a government committee chaired by the prime minister to deal with the Houthis’ takeover of Yemenia flights and the militia’s freeze of more than $100 million of the company’s assets in Sanaa banks.

“The council hold the terrorist militia entirely accountable for the consequences of this dangerous escalation, which would exacerbate civilians’ suffering and influence the national carrier’s flights,” the presidential council said, according to official news agency SABA.

In other developments, US and British jets struck Houthi targets in two Yemeni provinces as the militia escalated their drone, missile, and drone boat attacks on ships.

Houthi media reported that US and UK planes carried out four airstrikes on Hodeidah airport in the western province of Hodeida, as well as four more airstrikes on locations in Mawiyah district of the southern province Taiz over the last 24 hours.

The latest round of airstrikes occurred after the Houthis claimed to have targeted ships in the Red Sea and Mediterranean with ballistic missiles, drones, and explosive-laden drone boats.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement on Friday night that their forces, in collaboration with an allied militia in Iraq, launched a number of drones at an oil tanker named Waler, which was bound for Haifa in Israel and was targeted for violating their ban on ships heading to Israeli ports.

He further claimed that the Houthis launched ballistic missiles at an American ship named Delonix in the Red Sea, and at Johannes Maersk in the Mediterranean, accusing the latter’s parent company, Maersk, of being one of Israel’s “most supportive companies.”

The Houthis also targeted a ship named Ioannis in the Red Sea with drone boats for visiting Israeli ports in the past, he said.

According to www.marinetraffic.com, the Waler is a Panama-flagged oil and chemical tanker sailing from Georgia to Egypt’s East Mediterranean port of Said, the Delonix is a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker sailing from Ukraine to an unknown destination, and the Johannes Maersk is a container ship sailing under the Danish flag and was in the East Mediterranean on Saturday.

US Central Command said on Saturday that its forces had destroyed seven drones and one ground control station vehicle in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen.

Over the past eight months, the Houthis have sunk two ships and seized one commercial ship in the Red Sea, and directed hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and, most recently, the Mediterranean in a campaign that the Houthis claim is only targeting Israel-linked ships and those sailing to Israel in order to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza.