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Saudi intercepts three missiles from Yemen Houthis in 24 hours

February 16, 2017 at 3:09 pm

The Saudi-led coalition has announced that the Saudi Air Defence Forces has intercepted three rockets fired from Yemen in the past 24 hours.

The Houthis fired one rocket towards Khamis Mushayt, which is situated in the southwest region of the kingdom. They then fired two other rockets, which targeted the city of Abha.

The coalition reported that no injuries took place and that “the missile was intercepted and destroyed without any damage.”

Read: UN seeks $2.1bn to save Yemen from famine

Earlier this month, the Iran-backed Shia Houthis fired a “revenge” missile at the Saudi capital city of Riyadh. According to Saba news agency, the Houthi rebels released a statement saying the attack was orchestrated “in retaliation to the enemy American puppet that is Saudi Arabia’s continuous bloodshed and besiegement of the Yemeni people.”

The Saudi-led coalition stayed silent about the attack, which made many come to the conclusion that they did not intercept the missile. No injuries were reported and the launch was allegedly a test launch and a show of Houthi military strength. The missile had no warhead attached to it.

The missile they used was a Yemeni-made Borkan-1 ballistic missile, which is a local variation of a missile previously used by the Soviet Union. It has a range of over 800 kilometres and is designed to hit large military bases.