Saudi shoots down Houthi missile

Manama : Saudi forces shot down a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi militias towards the southern Najran city on Thursday evening, a Saudi military spokesman said. 

The attack, according to the spokesman of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen Col. Turki Al-Malki, targeted heavily populated areas in the Kingdom but was distorted mid-air by The Royal Saudi Air Defence Force (RSADF). 

Col. Turki Al-Malki, in a statement carried by the Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA), said the missile’s origin had been traced to Amran province in northern Yemen. Saudi state news agency said the missile caused no casualties.

“The hostile act by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias proves once against the Iranian regime’s persistence in providing this militant group with weapons in contravention of the UN Security Council resolutions 2216 and 2231,” Al-Malki said.

Reports said air defence forces of the coalition spotted the missile and destroyed it using Patriot Brigades. 

The attack is reportedly the fifth long-range ballistic missile attack by the Yemeni Houthi rebels on the Gulf state in two months. The militants have launched over a hundred missiles into Saudi Arabia since the Yemen war erupted two years ago.

Al-Malki stressed that such attacks against populated areas in Saudi Arabia pose a threat to not only the security of the Kingdom but that of the region and the world at large. 

He went on to urge the international community to adopt effective measures to force Iran into halting arms supplies to the terrorist groups.