Yemeni forces accuse Houthis of deploying Iranian air-defense weapons that endanger civil aviation over the Red Sea

Yemen’s government forces accuse the Houthis of deploying Iranian air-defense weapons that pose a serious threat to civil aviation over the Red Sea, as Al Jazeera reports — a claim that, if confirmed, would extend the conflict beyond Yemen’s battlefields into international flight corridors.

The government forces’ spokesman, Brig. Gen. Majed al-Nazili, said in a social media post that the weapons were modified with the help of experts from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and are being used to target fighter jets and cruise missiles launched from Yemeni territory.

According to him, the weapons operate with thermal tracking systems and “are capable of striking military or civilian targets without the ability to distinguish between them” — endangering civil aviation safety and passengers’ lives, including UN aircraft and humanitarian and aid organizations’ planes passing through air routes over Yemen and the region.

“The threat to the airspace over the southern Red Sea — and its transformation into a danger zone for civilian aircraft and passengers — represents an escalation that goes beyond the security of Yemen’s airspace,” al-Nazili said, adding that the use of “Iranian weapons from Yemeni territory poses a direct threat to international air navigation routes.”

He called on the international community, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) “to take urgent and decisive measures.” The claim comes as fighting in Yemen has escalated sharply and the Houthis have tightened control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait.