Turkey rebukes ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia 

ANKARA/RIYADH

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Nov. 5 condemned the ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia in Yemen on Nov. 4.        

“We condemn the targeting of Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 4 by a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia in Yemen,” a ministry statement said.        

“We welcome the fact that the attack was thwarted by the Saudi security forces without the loss of any life or property,” it added.        

Saudi Arabia’s air defense system intercepted the ballistic missile that had reportedly been fired from Yemen toward Riyadh, according to the Dubai-based Saudi station Al-Arabia.        

No causalities or major damage was reported as fragments of the interceptor landed in an uninhabited area east of the airport, said the report.   

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition closed the country’s air, sea and land borders on Nov. 6 and accused Iran of being behind the missile attack on Riyadh, saying it “may amount to an act of war.”

“The leadership of the coalition forces therefore considers this ... a blatant military aggression by the Iranian regime which may amount to an act of war,” the official Saudi news agency SPA said in a statement.    

Yemen’s complex war pits the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his Iran-backed Houthi rebel allies.

The Saudi statement said that the borders were being closed “to fill the gaps in the inspection procedures which enable the continued smuggling of missiles and military equipment to the Houthi militias loyal to Iran in Yemen.”

Despite the temporary closure of the air, sea and land ports, Saudi would protect “the entry and exit of relief and humanitarian personnel.”

“The coalition ... affirms the kingdom’s right to respond to Iran at the appropriate time and in the appropriate form,” it added.

The statement came a day after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed a major attack on Yemen’s government bastion of Aden on Nov. 5 that killed at least 15 people.

ISIL and its extremist rival al-Qaeda have taken advantage of the war to bolster their presence across much of the south.

While al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has for years been the stronger presence in southern Yemen, ISIL has recently come forward to claim attacks on both the army and the country’s Shiites, whom it considers heretics.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 8,650 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in 2015 and nearly 49,000 wounded.