Yemeni forces launch missile attack on Saudi capital

Yemeni troops have targeted the Saudi capital Riyadh with a ballistic missile attack while the kingdom claims to have intercepted the missiles.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Sunday announced that the missiles had hit Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense Information Center and several other key locations in the city.

The Saudi military claims to have intercepted the missiles.

“Two ballistic missiles fired by Huthi were intercepted over Riyadh,” state-run al-Ekhbariya television said, without specifying whether there were any casualties or damage.

The Houthis have fired salvos of missiles at Saudi Arabia in recent months, including the capital Riyadh, while the kingdom launched thousands of airstrikes on Yemen, killing hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.

Riyadh frequently reports intercepting missiles fired from Yemen, but various reports have pointed out that US-made Patriot interceptors were repeatedly failing against the counterattacks.

The Houthi movement, which is a significant aid to the Yemeni army in defending the country against the invading forces, has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective administration during the past three years.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 to reinstall the former Saudi-backed Hadi regime and crush the Houthi movement.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured until then. The war and an accompanying blockade have also caused famine across Yemen.