The Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen carried out air strikes on the Sana’a International Airport of the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital city after asking civilians and UN aid workers to immediately evacuate, the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting spokesman of the Coalition. “The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition has carried out on Monday evening a limited military operation against legitimate military targets in Sana’a airport after they were used for military purposes by the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militia,” Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman of the Coalition, said in a statement. The spokesman called on the workers of humanitarian organizations in the airport to immediately evacuate as it had taken legal measures to deal with the threat operationally. He said the Coalition lifted the protection off specific sites in the airport and carried out strikes on “legitimate military targets” there. “The operation comes in response to threats and the use of the airport’s facilities to launch cross-border attacks,” the statement said. Al-Malki explained that the strikes hit six sites, including places used for launching attacks by drones, training drone personnel, housing trainers and trainees, and storing drones. “Destroying these targets will not have any effect on the operational capacity of the airport, and will not affect managing the airspace, the air traffic, and ground handling operations,” the spokesman said. Al-Malki said the Houthi militia has abused the special protection accorded to the airport through conducting and launching hostile, cross-border operations using ballistic missiles and bomb-laden drones to target civilians and civilian objects in Yemen and its neighboring countries. “The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition has undertaken all legal procedures to void the protection of certain locations in the airport in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 52 of Protocol Additional I, and Rules 7,8 of the Customary International Humanitarian Law. On these grounds, the military operation was carried out to achieve the definitive military advantage of the targeting operation,” he said while noting that the Joint Forces Command has also undertaken all necessary measures and procedures to protect civilians and those locations, which are accorded special protection, prior to the operation through issuing and distributing advance warnings across viable means. During the seven-year-old conflict, forces of the Iran-aligned Houthi militia have sent drones and fired missiles into Saudi Arabia, and the Coalition has retaliated with air strikes inside Yemen. On Sunday, the Coalition said it had destroyed a drone launched from the airport and aimed at civilians at King Abdullah airport in Jazan, near the border with Yemen. The Coalition also said on Sunday it conducted a military operation in Sana’a to destroy workshops and warehouses for drones and other weapons, urging civilians to avoid the area.