RIYADH – A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia said Sunday it haddestroyed sites used by Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen to launchmissiles at the kingdom.
The coalition announced in a statement the “destruction over the past 24hours of ballistic missile (launch) sites run by the Huthi militias inSaada”, a northern Yemeni province bordering Saudi Arabia and controlled bythe Huthis.
Riyadh and its allies are fighting alongside Yemen s government against theIran-backed Huthis in a war that has killed thousands and pushedimpoverished Yemen to the brink of famine.
Saudi Arabia s government-run Al Ekhbariya TV aired a 49 second clipshowing black and white ariel footage of what it said was a coalitionstrike on Saada. The footage could not be independently confirmed.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasingly frequent missile attacks launchedby the Huthis from northern Yemen this year.
The kingdom s air defence forces say they intercepted all missiles, andonly one casualty has been reported.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest crude exporter in the world, last week announcedit had temporarily suspended oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Straitafter a Huthi missile attack on an Aramco vessel.
The strait connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and is a crucial passagefor oil and trade.
“The coalition will not allow the Huthi militias to build militarycapabilities that threaten regional waters,” the coalition said.
The Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the country sinternationally recognised government after the Huthi rebels forcedPresident Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict since the 2015intervention, 2,200 of them children.
Saudi Arabia accuses its regional arch-nemesis Iran of smuggling arms tothe Huthis through Yemen s ports, namely the Red Sea port of Hodeida.
The Hodeida port was blockaded by the Saudi-led alliance earlier this yearto retaliate against the rebels missile strikes.
The blockade has since been partially lifted, but access to theimpoverished country remains limited.
On June 13 Yemeni forces launched a major offensive to retake Hodeida.
Rebel-held Hodeida is the entry point for some 70 percent of imports in acountry where eight million people face imminent famine. – APP/AFP