Saudi intercepts missile fired towards Jizan

Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen towards the southern city of Jizan early on Thursday morning.

Saudi coalition spokesperson colonel Turki al-Maliki said Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Saada governorate launched the attack at 1:58am.

He said it deliberately targeted civilian areas and fragments were scattered over residential neighbourhoods. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The official repeated claims that Iran was providing the Houthis with ballistic missile components.

Earlier this week, the US Treasury placed five Iranians on its sanctions list for providing ballistic missile expertise to the Houthis.

Read: US sanctions five Iranians for providing Yemen’s Houthis with missile expertise

The kingdom has been the target of more than 100 ballistic missile attacks since entering the Yemen civil war in 2015 as part of an Arab coalition.

Another attack on Monday also targeted Jizan, while the coalition intercepted a missile fired towards Khamis Mushait on Saturday.

Read: Saudi intercepts missile fired towards Khamis Mushait

The kingdom suffered its first casualty from a missile attack in March when an Egyptian resident of Riyadh was hit by debris from three missiles targeting the capital as part of a wider attack also aimed at Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait.

Read: UN Security Council condemns Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia

The Saudi coalition said last month that 119 rockets and 6,6259 projectiles had been fired across the border into the kingdom as of April 16.