- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THREE persons, including two Indian nationals, were killed while six were injured after a suspected drone attack blew up petrol tanks near a major oil storage facility in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Monday (17).
The third person was reportedly a Pakistani national.
Indian ambassador to the UAE Sanjay Sudhir told Indian news channel NDTV, “We have heard from the authorities here that two Indians died. We are trying to find out their identities. We will reach out to their families… Stay calm. The UAE is a very peaceful place.”
Reports said Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it carried out the attack in the UAE.
Some Twitter users posted what appeared to be the site of the blast, showing a thick plume of black some rising into the sky.
The local media reported that three fuel tanks exploded near depots of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company but the cause was not known immediately.
BREAKING : Two Indians among 3 killed in suspected drone attack in Abu Dhabi 🇦🇪#AbuDhabi #drones #DroneAttack #UAE #ISIS #BREAKING pic.twitter.com/3HC99NZKXm
— Sangpu Changsan (@_sangpuchangsan) January 17, 2022
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree later told Lebanon-based Yemeni broadcaster Almasirah that they would soon give details of their “military operation in UAE territory”.
The incident in the UAE capital comes just days after a UAE ship was seized by the Houthis. The United Nations Security Council condemned the seizure and demanded immediate release of the vessel and crew.
Yemen has been caught in a conflict between government forces led by president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels. A Saudi-led Arab alliance working with Hadi’s forces has been conducting air, land and sea operations against the Houthis since March 2015.
