AFP :
Saudi Arabia on Thursday intercepted a ballistic missile and two drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a Riyadh-led coalition said, as Western powers denounced a strike on an airport a day earlier.
The Iran-backed Houthis have escalated attacks on the kingdom and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces days after the United States moved to delist the rebels as terrorists and stepped-up efforts to de-escalate the six-year conflict.
A rebel drone on early Thursday targeted the southern garrison town of Khamis Mushait that hosts a key airbase, but was destroyed before reaching its target, the official SPA news agency cited the coalition as saying.
Hours later, the coalition said it intercepted a rebel ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait and another explosives-laden drone that targeted the kingdom’s southern region.
The coalition did not report any casualties or damage.The strikes come after the rebels mounted a drone attack on Abha international airport in the kingdom’s southwest on Wednesday, leaving a civilian plane ablaze.
In a joint statement on Thursday, Germany, Britain, and France said they “strongly condemn” the airport attack, which they said was a “violation of international law.”
The United States also denounced the assault, calling on the Houthis to “immediately stop these aggressive acts” and “constructively engage” in President Joe Biden’s peace effort.
Biden, who has reversed his predecessor Donald Trump’s policy on the conflict, has deployed his new Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking to Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday Lenderking and his UN counterpart Martin Griffiths met Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, Prince Khaled bin Salman, who oversees the Yemen portfolio.
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the attack on Abha during a call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, SPA reported.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday intercepted a ballistic missile and two drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a Riyadh-led coalition said, as Western powers denounced a strike on an airport a day earlier.
The Iran-backed Houthis have escalated attacks on the kingdom and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces days after the United States moved to delist the rebels as terrorists and stepped-up efforts to de-escalate the six-year conflict.
A rebel drone on early Thursday targeted the southern garrison town of Khamis Mushait that hosts a key airbase, but was destroyed before reaching its target, the official SPA news agency cited the coalition as saying.
Hours later, the coalition said it intercepted a rebel ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait and another explosives-laden drone that targeted the kingdom’s southern region.
The coalition did not report any casualties or damage.The strikes come after the rebels mounted a drone attack on Abha international airport in the kingdom’s southwest on Wednesday, leaving a civilian plane ablaze.
In a joint statement on Thursday, Germany, Britain, and France said they “strongly condemn” the airport attack, which they said was a “violation of international law.”
The United States also denounced the assault, calling on the Houthis to “immediately stop these aggressive acts” and “constructively engage” in President Joe Biden’s peace effort.
Biden, who has reversed his predecessor Donald Trump’s policy on the conflict, has deployed his new Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking to Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday Lenderking and his UN counterpart Martin Griffiths met Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, Prince Khaled bin Salman, who oversees the Yemen portfolio.
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the attack on Abha during a call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, SPA reported.
