Saudi Arabia Reports Destruction of Houthi Missile Before Impacting Target

Saudi military forces report the interception of a missile attack allegedly launched by Houthi forces in Yemen towards the Jazan region in the south of the country. Houthi rebels had earlier announced, without providing details, that they had fired a ballistic missile "Badr 1" at Jazan Airport. According to the official Saudi news agency, Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Arab coalition, announced the thwarting of the Houthi missile attack and accused them of targeting residential areas in Jazan. The Iranian-backed Houthi militants control large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sana'a, and have launched several missiles towards Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, in the past month. Their missile attacks are a response to thousands of airstrikes by the Saudi-led Arab coalition against their positions, which have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians in hospitals, schools, and markets. The three-year civil war in Yemen between the Houthis and the central government has transformed into a proxy war between two Middle Eastern powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, representing Shia and Sunni sects, respectively. The Arab coalition, backed by the United States, intervened in 2015 to combat the Houthi Shia militants in favor of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the president who fled the country amid the escalating crisis and now lives in Riyadh. While the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and their allies accuse Iran of arming and supplying the Houthis with missiles, the Islamic Republic denies these allegations, claiming that the Houthis have independently developed these missiles. The Houthi rebels assert that the missiles they launch are "produced in Yemen," but if they could obtain strategic weapons from any country, they would not hesitate for a moment. In this context, UN experts monitoring the implementation of Yemen sanctions, who visited Saudi Arabia twice in May and July 2017, and again in November and December of the same year to examine the remnants of ground-to-ground missiles fired by the Houthis at Saudi targets, concluded that these weapons have Iranian origins. These experts state that these missiles reached the Houthis after the UN Security Council sanctions began in March 2015. Following the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with world powers, which was welcomed by Saudi Arabia, the Houthi rebels fired several ballistic missiles towards the Saudi capital. Saudi officials at that time also reported that these missiles were tracked and destroyed over Riyadh. Reuters reported after these attacks that the missile fire towards Riyadh, just one day after the announcement of Washington's exit from the JCPOA, could be seen as a sign of escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and its main regional rival, Iran. Over the past year, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict. Reports and estimates indicate that 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, and the war has exacerbated the worst cholera outbreak in modern history.