RIYADH (Agencies): Local Yemeni sources have confirmed a missile attack on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in reprisal for the regime’s air raids on the impoverished country.
Speaking to Press TV, the sources said the Yemeni army targeted Riyadh with ballistic missiles late Saturday without giving any further details.
Earlier in the day, Saudi state media reported that at least one ballistic missile and a rocket had been intercepted in the sky above Riyadh and the southern city of Jazan.
However, a spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense said two people were wounded in the strikes. The contradictory accounts have not been explained yet by Saudi authorities.
A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis on Sunday said the group’s forces launched rockets and drones at “sensitive” sites in Riyadh and at economic and military sites in Jazan, Najran and Asir, near the Yemeni border.
Spokesman Yahya Saria said Zulfiqar missiles and Samad 3 drones were launched at Riyadh, and other drones and missiles at the southern areas. Saria warned of further “painful operations” against Saudi Arabia if aggression against Yemen continued.
The latest missile attack comes after all parties in Yemen’s long conflict offered support on Thursday for the UN’ call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the novel coronavirus pandemic. The call coincided with the fifth anniversary of Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war, at the helm of a military coalition supporting the internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels.
In his statement, al-Malki said firing missiles at this time by the Houthis and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps showed the real threat the group, and the Iranian government supporting it, posed.
He added: “This escalation by the Houthi militia does not reflect its announcement of acceptance of the ceasefire and de-escalation, nor any seriousness in engaging in confidence-building measures and reaching a comprehensive political solution with the Yemeni government to end the coup.”
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, deposed by the Houthis in 2014. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people, many by Saudi-led air raids. It has also created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical shortages. The warring sides had earlier shown an interest in de-escalation, with a Saudi official saying in November that Riyadh had an “open channel” with the rebels with a goal of ending the war. The Ho-uthis also offered to halt all missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia after atta-cks on its oil installations last September, which were claimed by the armed group but widely blamed on Iran, despite its denials.
