Saudi intercepts ballistic missile near Yemen border: State media

RIYADH – Agence France-Presse

Saudi Arabia on Jan. 5 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 Houthi rebels, locked in a war against Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, 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 defenses intercepted the ballistic missile over Najran, according to the kingdom’s state-owned Al Ekhbariya news channel.

Saudi Arabia, which has been targeted by multiple rocket attacks in recent weeks, has blamed its regional rival Iran for arming the Shiite Houthis in the Yemen war.

The kingdom denounced the threat of “Iranian-manufactured ballistic weapons” after it intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen over Riyadh in December.

No casualties have been reported in the attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of President Abedrabbo Mansur Hadi’s government in March 2015, after the Houthis took over the capital Sanaa and much of the rest of the country.

But despite the coalition’s superior firepower, the rebels still control the capital and much of the north.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since the coalition intervened, according to the World Health Organization.