RIYADH – Saudi Arabia on Friday intercepted a ballistic missile over thekingdom’s south near the border with Yemen, state media reported, hoursafter Yemeni rebels said they had launched an attack.
The Huthi rebels, locked in a war against Yemen’s Saudi-backed government,said they had fired a missile at the kingdom’s southwestern province ofNajran in a statement tweeted by their Al-Masirah television channel.
Saudi air defences intercepted the ballistic missile over Najran, accordingto the kingdom’s state-owned Al Ekhbariya news channel.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led military alliance fighting the Huthis inYemen did not immediately respond to a request for further details.
Saudi Arabia, which has been targeted by multiple rocket attacks in recentweeks, has blamed its regional rival Iran for arming the Shiite Huthis inthe Yemen war.
The kingdom denounced the threat of “Iranian-manufactured ballisticweapons” after it intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen overRiyadh in December.
No casualties have been reported in the attacks.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of President Abedrabbo MansurHadi’s government in March 2015, after the Huthis took over the capitalSanaa and much of the rest of the country.
But despite the coalition’s superior firepower, the rebels still controlthe capital and much of the north.
More than 8,750 people have been killed since the coalition intervened,according to the World Health Organization.