Iran plane breaches Yemen no-fly zone

Coalition forces have carried out a bombing raid on the runway at Sanaa airport on Tuesday, to prevent an Iranian civilian plane from landing there, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

The raid took place after the plane defied the coalition-enforced no-fly zone over Yemen entering the airspace from Oman. The no-fly zone has been in force since March 25, 2015 when Operation Decisive Storm began.

Saudi military operation spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said in a phone interview with Al Arabiya News Channel that the Iranian plane had entered Yemeni airspace in a non-allocated time slot.

“Iranian actions towards Yemen are irresponsible,” he said, adding: “Defying the no-fly zone doesn't serve the interest of Yemenis.”

He said they did not understand why the aircraft did not follow coalition directions to stop at (Saudi) Bisha airport for inspection and instead insisted to go directly to Sanaa

He added: “We reiterated several times that humanitarian efforts need to be coordination with the coalition first.

“The runway has been bombarded and it will now take time to fix, this is Iran’s responsibility as it defied several warning calls we made.”