Yemeni Houthi rebels again target Saudi Arabia; launches ballistic missile on Najran province

Jeddah, April 28: Yemeni Houthi rebels continue to target the Kingdon. Notably, Saudi Arabia on Thursday again intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels that targeted the southern Saudi province of Najran. This is the fourth time when Houthi rebels targeted Najran province of Saudi Arabia.

 

Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels, days after their second-in-command was killed in an air raid by Riyadh and its allies. Col. Turki Al-Maliki, an official spokesperson of Saudi Arabia armed forces said that the Royal Saudi Air Defence detected a ballistic missile launch from Sadah, Yemen, aimed at Kingdom.

Col. Turki Al-Maliki further added that the ballistic missile was launched deliberately by the Iranian Houthi rebels to target densely populated civilian areas to cause heavy damages. Fortunately, there were no injuries or damages were reported.

Importantly, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday confirmed it was behind an air strike on the Yemeni capital that killed Saleh Al-Sammad, president of the Houthi’s Supreme Political Council, on April 19. A public funeral for Al-Sammad will be held by the Houthis in Sanaa on Saturday.

This is the seventh incident when Houthi rebels fired ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia. Last Friday, Saudi air defence forces managed to intercept a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militias in the direction of Saudi Arabia’s border province of Jazan.

In March this year, Saudi Arabia intercepted seven short-range ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels that targeted residential suburbs in Riyadh. In this deadly attack, one Egyptian citizen was killed while two others were injured.

Yemen has been embroiled in a violent conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Yemeni forces. Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Yemeni forces at Hadi’s request.

An estimated 6,00,000 civilians have been killed or wounded since the beginning of the Saudi-led campaign. Yemen is also suffering from the disastrous outbreak of cholera due to which 2180 civilians are killed while suspect cases have reached to 8,72,415 in the time period of 6 months.