More missiles target Jizan

Riyadh : Saudi Arabia yesterday intercepted four ballistic missiles fired by Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition against the insurgents said, with a local official reporting one man had been killed in the attack.

The missiles were headed towards the city of Jizan in southern Saudi Arabia, according to a coalition statement.

Jizan’s civil defence spokesman Colonel Yahya Abdullah al-Qahtani told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television that a Saudi Arabian citizen had been killed by falling shrapnel.

A picture accompanying the Arabiya TV report appeared to show the outside of a civilian home pockmarked by shrapnel.

Arab coalition forces’ official spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said that the rockets were directed towards Jazan City and were deliberately launched by the militia to target civilian and populated areas. The Saudi air defense forces were able to intercept them all.

The Directorate of Saudi Civil Defence later said it received reports that shrapnel killed one civilian and damaged two houses and three vehicles.

The Huthi rebels’ Al Masirah television reported Saturday they had fired eight missiles at “economic and vital targets”, a day after Saudi defence forces said they had downed a missile headed for the same area.

The latest attack came as the Huthis staged a public funeral for a slain commander in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.  Top Houthi officials including al-Samad’s successor Mahdi al-Mashat, a former Houthi fighter, attended. Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi vowed to avenge al-Samad’s death.

Eyewitnesses in Sanaa reported Saudi-led air raids on Saturday near the downtown rally for the burial of Saleh al-Samad, the president of the political body which runs Houthi-controlled northern Yemen. There were no reports of casualties.

Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels’ supreme political council, was killed in an air raid by Saudi Arabia and its allies last week.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia said the rebels had fired at least 116 missiles at the kingdom since it went to war in Yemen in 2015.

Saudi Arabia formed its military coalition in 2015 to battle the Huthi rebels in its southern neighbour and restore the internationally recognised Yemeni government to power.

Saturday’s attacks came as newly-appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to land in Riyadh for meetings including talks on the Yemen conflict.

Riyadh and its close ally Washington accuse Iran of arming the Huthis, which Iran denies.

The Iranian-backed Houthis face criticism for laying mines that have killed and maimed civilians, while allegedly diverting humanitarian aid to their own cadres and conducting mass roundups of their perceived enemies.