Houthis in Yemen fire missiles at Saudi capital

RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Riyadh on Wednesday – an attack Saudi authorities said they intercepted in the skies over the city.

The assault comes a day after Saudi Arabia’s top ally the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, and could signal an uptick in tensions between regional rivals Riyadh and Tehran.

The Houthis said the missiles were fired at economic targets in Riyadh, the group’s Al-Masirah TV reported. At least four blasts were heard in the city center, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The Houthis have fired a series of missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia in recent months, part of a three-yearold conflict in Yemen widely seen as a proxy battle between the Saudis and Iran.

A spokesman for the Houthi-aligned military, Col. Aziz Rashed, told Al-Masirah the attack on the capital and another area marked “a new phase” and was revenge for Saudi air strikes on Yemen.

“There will be more salvos until this enemy is deterred, understands the meaning of the Yemeni threat and ceases its crimes,” Rashed said.

He did not mention President Donald Trump’s decision, hours earlier, to pull out of the international nuclear accord with Iran. But there have been fears the US pullout could exacerbate the conflict in Yemen and other regional flashpoints.

Saudi Arabia and other US allies lined up on Wednesday to praise Trump’s decision, as did Yemen’s government, which has been forced into exile by Houthi advances in the country.

The Yemeni government said the US withdrawal was a necessary step to stop Iran’s “destabilizing and dangerous” behavior. “The Iranian regime has exploited the benefits of the nuclear agreement to export violence and terrorism to its neighbors,” it said in a statement.

Saudi state media said separately that air defense forces had intercepted a missile fired at the southern city of Jizan, in an attack also claimed by the Houthis.

“This hostile action by the Houthi militia backed by Iran proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime,” coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki was quoted as saying by state news agency SPA.

Iran, he added, aimed “to threaten the security of Saudi Arabia as well as regional and international security.”

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to try to push back the Houthis after they ousted the internationally recognized government.

Iran and the Houthis have regularly dismissed Saudi accusations that Tehran is arming the group.