A Houthi spokesperson says four drones have targeted positions in Riyadh but no confirmation yet from Saudi Arabia.
A spokesperson for the Houthi movement said the group had carried out drone attacks targeting positions in the Saudi capital Riyadh, amid diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire in war-torn Yemen.
Saudi officials did not confirm Thursday’s claim, but in recent weeks the Houthis, who fought a six-year Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen, have launched numerous missile and drone attacks. targeting Saudi oil installations, airports and military sites. .
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led military coalition said it destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile on its launch pad in Yemen, Saudi State TV reported, adding that the weapon was being prepared for the launch to the gas-rich Yemeni province of Marib. The Houthis did not immediately confirm the claim.
The Houthis rejected a ceasefire proposal made by Riyadh last month because it did not include the lifting of an air and sea blockade imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition on the controlled territories by the rebels.
The conflict, seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has sparked what the United Nations considers to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Last month, the coalition – which intervened militarily in 2015, months after the Houthis captured large parts of northern Yemen, including Sana’a – said it hit a missile and drone assembly plant in the Yemeni capital.
The United Nations said air raids also hit the Houthi-controlled grain port of Salif north of Hodeidah and two projectiles hit a warehouse and the living quarters of a food production company.
Tit-for-tat
The latest escalation last month came amid renewed diplomatic efforts by the United States and the United Nations to achieve a ceasefire that would pave the way for a resumption of UN-sponsored political talks to end the conflict in Yemen.
The Houthis have defended the cross-border attacks, saying they were in response to six years of a devastating military offensive in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition.
The Saudi-led coalition aims to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government, to stem what it sees as Iran’s growing influence in the region.
Rights groups and international observers have criticized Saudi-led war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and pushed the poorest nation in the Middle East into a humanitarian crisis unprecedented.
