Saudi shoots down Najran-bound missile

Riyadh : Saudi Arabia yesterday intercepted a ballistic missile over the kingdom’s south near the border with Yemen, state media reported, hours after Yemeni rebels said they had launched an attack.

The Huthi rebels said they had fired a missile at the kingdom’s southwestern province of Najran in a statement tweeted by their Al-Masirah television channel.

Saudi air defences intercepted the ballistic missile over Najran, according to the kingdom’s state-owned Al Ekhbariya news channel.

A spokesman for the Arab Coalition Forces for Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen Col. Turki Al-Malki said that at 7:56 am, the Air Defence Forces of the Arab Coalition spotted the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemeni territory towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s lands.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Col. Al-Maliki as saying that the missile was deliberately launched towards Najran to target civilian areas and population, but it was intercepted and destroyed by the Brigades “Patriot in the sky of Najran.

The kingdom’s official news agency SPA said that the only destruction was ‘minor damage’ to the private property of a Saudi citizen due to missile parts that dispersed once the missile was intercepted and added that there were no deaths.

A video has since emerged online which claims to show the Houthi rocket being shot down over the Yemeni border by Saudi forces. 

Al-Maliki added that this hostile action by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting armed militias. He also renewed calls for the international community to take more serious and effective steps to stop the blatant Iranian violations of the continued smuggling and transfer of ballistic missiles and weapons to terrorist groups. In December, the United States said it has ‘undeniable’ evidence that Tehran is violating international law.UN Ambassador Nikki Haley showed off missile parts to cameras at a military base near Washington, saying the projectile was supplied by Iran and launched by Yemen’s Houthis at the airport in Riyadh.