Saudi Air Defense Unit Intercepts Another Houthi Ballistic Missile

The Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen said it fired on Thursday a ballistic missile toward a military airport in Saudi border province of Najran, Saba news agency reported.

However, Saudi media reported that Saudi air defense intercepted the missile and destroyed it over Nijran.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Arab coalition forces was quoted as saying by local TV channel Al Arabiya that the air defense forces of the coalition spotted at 7:56 am on Friday morning, the launch of a ballistic missile from within the Yemeni territory in the direction of Najran in Saudi Arabia.

Colonel al-Maliki said that the missile targeted civilian and populated areas. It was intercepted and destroyed by the Patriot Brigades in the skies of Najran, causing scattered shrapnel that caused minor damage to the property of one of the citizens without causing any casualties.

It is the fifth long-range ballistic missile attack by the Yemeni Houthi rebels on the neighboring oil-rich Gulf state in two months. The militants have launched over a hundred missiles into Saudi Arabia since the Yemen war erupted two years ago.

Just this week, Houthi rebels announced they've built a new locally designed missile to fight against the Saudi-led alliance. And now the rebels are threatening to block the Red Sea shipping lane if the coalition keeps pushing towards the western port city of Hodeidah.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the country to the brink of mass famine.