Houthis fire ballistic missile toward Saudi

Monitoring Desk

RIYADH: Yemen’s Houthi movement fired a ballistic missile toward the southern Saudi province of Najran on Saturday, the group’s official al-Masirah TV reported, and a Saudi military spokesman said air defense forces had intercepted the missile.

The TV channel said the s-hort-range missile targeted a military base. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Iranian-aligned Hout-his have launched scores of missiles at the kingdom. W-hile causing little serious da-mage, they have deepened te-nsions between Riyadh and Tehran.

Meanwhile, official spok-esman of the Coalition Forces Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen Colonel Turki Al-Maliki said in a statement Saturday that “At 12:38 p.m. today, the Air Defense Forces affiliated to the Coalition have detected a ballistic missile launched by Iran-affiliated Houthi militias from S-aada Governorate towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Maliki also said that the missile was directed to Najran City in order to deliberately target civilian and populated areas. The missile was intercepted and destroyed by the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces (RSADF), Al-Maliki added.

The Official Spokesman also said “This hostile action by Iran-supported Houthi group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthi armed group with qualitative capabilities, in a clear and explicit defiance and violation of UN Resolutions No. 2216 and No. 2231 in order to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the regional and international security. Firing ballistic missiles towards populated cities and villages is contrary to the international humanitarian law.

Colonel Al-Maliki rene-wed his call for the international community to take m-ore serious and effective steps to stop the blatant Ira-nian violations of continued smuggling and transfer of ballistic missiles and we-apons to terrorist groups and outlaws, and to hold Iran accountable for its blatant defiance of the international norms and values as well as its threat to the regional and international security.