Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Saturday intercepted four ballistic missiles fired by Yemeni rebels, the Saudi-led coalition against the insurgents said, with a local official reporting one man had been killed in the attack.
The missiles were headed towards the city of Jizan in southern Saudi Arabia, according to a coalition statement.
While the coalition said the attack claimed no casualties, Jizan’s civil defence spokesman Colonel Yahya Abdullah al-Qahtani told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television that a Saudi Arabian citizen had been killed by falling shrapnel.
A coalition spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.
The Huthi rebels’ Al Masirah television reported Saturday they had fired eight missiles towards Jizan, a day after Saudi defence forces said they had downed a missile headed for the same area.
The latest attack came as the Huthis staged a public funeral for a slain commander in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels’ supreme political council, was killed in an air raid by Saudi Arabia and its allies last week.
Saudi Arabia formed its military coalition in 2015 to battle the Huthi rebels in its southern neighbour and restore the internationally recognised Yemeni government to power.
The Huthis control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, as well as much of Yemen’s north and the key Hodeida port on the country’s western coastline.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the Yemen conflict, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The alliance imposed a total blockade on Yemen’s ports in November in retaliation for the rebel missile attacks.
The blockade has since been partially lifted, but access remains limited and the impoverished country stands on the brink of famine.
AFP