Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired from war-ravaged Yemen, by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, the second of such attack in November.
The missile targeted the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, with authorities reporting no casualties, just hours after the rebels threatened to retaliate over a crippling blockade on Yemen.
A Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels imposed the blockade, which the UN warns is deepening Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, in response to a Huthi missile that was intercepted near Riyadh airport on November 4.
The missile attacks underscore the growing threat posed by the raging conflict in Yemen and represents a new escalation of the coalition’s war against the Shiite rebels.
The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel said Thursday’s missile hit a military target inside Saudi Arabia, but the coalition contradicted that claim.
“The missile heading towards the city of Khamis Mushait was intercepted and destroyed without any casualties,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki as saying.
Hours earlier rebel chief, Abdulmalik al-Huthi, threatened to retaliate if the blockade was prolonged.
“Should the blockade continue, we know what (targets) would cause great pain and how to reach them,” he said in a speech broadcast on Al-Masira.
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The blockade prompted the Huthi rebels this month to warn that they considered “airports, ports, border crossings and areas of any importance” in Saudi Arabia, as well as its ally the United Arab Emirates, legitimate targets.
The coalition, which accuses the rebels of being a proxy for regional nemesis Iran, justifies the blockade saying it is meant to stop the flow of arms to the rebels from Tehran.
Earlier this month Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said arming Yemen’s Huthis could be considered an “act of war,” provoking a heated war of words with Tehran.
Saudi Arabia and a coalition of mainly Sunni Arab allies launched air strikes in March 2015 against the Huthis and later sent ground troops to support pro-government forces.
The conflict has claimed more than 8,600 lives since the Saudi-led coalition joined the government’s war against the rebel alliance.
More than 2,000 people have also died of cholera this year.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday implored Saudi leaders to ease a blockade on Yemen to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe”, her office said, echoing urgent appeals from the United Nations.
