Monitoring Desk
SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi group has fired a cruise missile towards a nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the group’s television service said on its website on Sunday, without providing any evidence.
“The missile force announces the launching of a winged cruise missile … towards the al-Barakah nuclear reactor in Abu Dhabi,” the website said. It gave no further details.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) denied claims by Yemen’s Houthi rebels of firing a missile on a nuclear power reactor in Abu Dhabi.
The official WAM news agency disputed Houthi claims that they had fired a cruise missile toward the al-Barakah nuclear facility.
WAM, citing the country’s emergency authority, said the UAE has “an air defense system capable of dealing with any kind of threat against the reactor”.
A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier said the missile had fallen in the northern province of Al Jawf after its launch.
Al-Barakah nuclear reactor is expected to be operational next year.
On Saturday, the Houthi group accused the UAE of backing former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces have been battling rebels for control of the capital Sanaa.
The UAE is a member of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels since 2015 after they overran Sanaa and much of the country and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.
In an another development, at least 36 people have been killed in two days of rebel infighting in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to a medical source on Sunday.
Houthi rebels and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling in recent days over control in Sanaa, which they jointly overran in 2014.
The medical source said many civilians were among the victims, adding that 225 people were also injured in the violence.
On Saturday, Saleh said he was open to talks with the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis to end the three-year conflict in Yemen.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign to reverse Houthi military gains and shore up the Yemeni government.
Saleh loyalists are reported to have captured several areas in eastern Sanaa and military checkpoints along the road between Sanaa and Dhamar province.
Forces loyal to the former president reportedly overran a military camp in southern Sanaa, according to Saleh’s General People’s Congress.
A source in Saleh’s forces said hundreds of tribesmen were ordered to move to Sanaa to back up loyalists of the former president against Houthi rebels. According to Almotamar.net, a Yemeni news website run by Saleh’s General People’s Congress, the forces loyal to Saleh detained hundreds of Houthis in the capital.
