Saudi-led coalition says it destroyed Yemen rebel missile launch sites

RIYADH — A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had destroyed sites used by Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen to launch missiles at the kingdom.

In a statement reported by Saudi Arabia’s government-run Al Ekhbariya TV, the coalition announced the “destruction of ballistic missile [launch] sites run by the Houthi militias in Saada”, a northern Yemeni province bordering Saudi Arabia and controlled by the Houthis.

Riyadh and its allies are fighting alongside Yemen’s government against the Iran-backed Houthis in a war that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives and pushed impoverished Yemen to the brink of famine.

Saudi Arabia has come under increasingly frequent missile attacks launched by the Houthis from northern Yemen this year. 

The kingdom’s air defence forces say they intercepted all missiles, and only one casualty has been reported.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest crude exporter in the world, last week announced it had temporarily suspended oil shipments through the Bab Al Mandab Strait after a Houthi missile attack on an Aramco vessel. 

The strait connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and is a crucial passage for oil and trade. 

“The coalition will not allow the Houthi militias to build military capabilities that threaten regional waters”, read Sunday’s coalition statement.

The Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the country’s internationally recognised government after the Houthi rebels forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.