Five injured, property damaged after Saudi intercepts two drones fired by Houthis

Five civilians including a woman and a child were injured in the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait after Saudi forces intercepted two missiles fired by the Houthis from Yemen on Tuesday.

Colonel Turki Al-Malki, the official spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, stated that the Royal Saudi Air Defence forces detected “two unidentified objects” headed towards civilians in Khamis Mushait at 9.35pm local time on Tuesday.

“They were directed at densely populated civilian areas, and were intercepted and destroyed according to the rules of engagement,” he was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

As a result of intercepting the two drones, debris scattered along two civilian areas, and resulted in injuring five civilians and caused damages to some houses and four vehicles.

“The continuous attempts by the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militia to target civilians and civilian objects through UAV and remote-controlled explosive speedboat terrorist, hostile attacks emanating from Hodeida Governorate specifically in a time that the coalition command is adhering to the ceasefire in Hodeida as defined by the Stockholm agreement, seeks to provoke coalition forces into conducting military operations in Hodeida,” Al-Malki said.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the coalition to supporting the political efforts spearheaded by the special envoy of the secretary-general for Yemen.

The kingdom has been targeted by hundreds of missile attacks since entering the Yemen civil war in 2015 to support ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the Houthis.

Last month the coalition said it had attacked drone storage caves in Yemen as part of an operation launched in January to destroy the Houthis’ drone capabilities.

Read: Saudi-led coalition attacks drone storage caves in Yemen’s capital – SPA