Yemen’s Houthis Attack Deep Inside Saudi Arabia

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday claimed to have perpetrated a “large-scale attack” deep in Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh released a statement saying that its forces had intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward the kingdom’s capital. A Saudi-led coalition of Sunni regional countries in March 2015 intervened militarily in the war in Yemen, just months after Iranian-backed Shi’ite Houthis overran Sana’a and ousted the government. There has been an uptick in violence since the expiry last month of a six-week ceasefire agreed to amid a coronavirus outbreak in Yemen. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition described Tuesday’s attack as a “deliberate hostile action designed to target civilians.” He added that the Houthis on Monday night had targeted the Saudi southern border cities of Najran and Jizan with three rockets. The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 100,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.