Saudi forces shoot down missile fired from Yemen

JEDDAH: Saudi forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen toward the southern border region of Najran on Tuesday, the Arab coalition supporting the UN-recognized Yemeni government said.

Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted the missile at dawn over Najran before it could cause any damage, the coalition said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Coalition forces subsequently hit back at the missile launch site, SPA said. Saudi air defense forces are using Patriot missiles against rebel missile attacks.

Yemeni rebels had been targeting Saudi Arabia's southern border regions with rocket and missile attacks since the Kingdom led a coalition of Arab states to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015.

Hadi was forced into



exile in Riyadh as Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh combined to seize large areas of Yemen.

More than 500 civilians in the kingdom have been killed by Houthi attacks along the border with Yemen since

March 2015.

In Yemen, more than 6,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, about half of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

Last month, the rebels launched one of their longest-range strikes against Saudi Arabia, firing a ballistic missile that was brought down near the holy city of Makkah, an attack that was roundly condemned by Saudi Arabia’s Gulf allies.

The rebels insisted that the missile had been fired at Jeddah, the Red Sea city in the sprawling Makkah region, not at the holy city itself.