Military coalition says destroyed Yemen rebel missile launch sites

pulse

July 29, 2018 4:35 PM

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia said Sunday it had destroyed sites used by Huthi 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 Huthi militias in Saada", a northern Yemeni province bordering Saudi Arabia and controlled by the Huthis.

Riyadh and its allies are fighting alongside Yemen's government against the Iran-backed Huthis 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 Huthis 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 Huthi 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 Huthi 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 Huthi rebels forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

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