Three dead, six injured in Abu Dhabi tanker fire; Iran-backed Houthis claim attack

Three people were killed and six injured in a fuel tanker explosion in Abu Dhabi, state news agency WAM reported.

One Pakistani and two Indian nationals were killed, and six others were wounded with injuries ranging from light to medium, when the incident took place at 10am on Monday, according to WAM and ADNOC.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said they launched an attack on the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported on Monday.

The explosion at the Mussafah Fuel Depot and a separate fire at the emirate’s new airport extension were potentially caused by drones, Abu Dhabi police said in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency.

The Houthis plan to announce details about a military operation in the UAE on Monday afternoon, according to a post from a Twitter account linked to the militia’s spokesperson Yahya Saree.

A full investigation has been launched into the cause of the fires.

An ADNOC spokesperson said the company was “deeply saddened” by the incident and extended its sympathies to the families of those affected, in a press statement released on Monday.

The UAE intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 as part of the Arab Coalition. It scaled down its operations in 2019.

A UAE cargo ship, the Rwabee, was hijacked by Houthi forces on the night of January 1.

The ship was on its way from Socotra Island in Yemen to the port of Jazan in Saudi Arabia, carrying equipment leased by a Saudi company used in a field hospital on the island, according to the Arab Coalition.

The Houthis claimed that the vessel was carrying military equipment.

Onboard were seven Indian sailors, an Ethiopian, and Indonesian, a Filipino, and a sailor from Myanmar.

With Reuters