At least 3 people dead in Abu Dhabi fuel tanker blast

Dubai, Jan 17 (EFE).- At least three people were killed and six others injured on Monday after three fuel tankers exploded in Abu Dhabi in a blast the Emirati police said might have been caused by bomb-equipped drones.

The victims — identified as two Indian nationals and a Pakistani — were caught up in the blast at an industrial near storage tanks belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), official Emirati news agency WAM said. The incident also caused a separate fire near Abu Dhabi’s airport.

Local authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident and the circumstances surrounding it, according to WAM.

“Initial investigations indicated the detection of small flying objects, possibly drones, that fell in the two areas and could have caused the blast and the fire,” the police said in a statement published by WAM.

Shortly after, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebel group said it had movement carried out a military operation in the UAE.

“An important statement to announce a special military operation in the depths of UAE in the coming hours,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on Twitter, giving no further details.

The incidents in the UAE come after the Houthi rebels lost control of a province to UAE-backed forces on January 12.

At the time, Saree said the consequences of “this Emirati escalation will be great & they must bear consequences of their escalation.”

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led Arab military coalition intervening in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government against the Shiite Houthi movement.EFE

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