The United Arab Emirates (UAE) intercepted missiles headed towards its capital Abu Dhabi on Monday morning. The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency said that the missiles were intercepted and its fragments fell over the city harming none. The missiles come as tensions soar between the coalition of Gulf nations and Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, who last week killed three foreign citizens when they launched a drone attack at the Abu Dhabi airport.
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No one claimed responsibility for the attack but a report by news agency Reuters said that the missiles were interballistic and the Houthis may have launched the attack. “The remnants of the intercepted ballistic missiles fell in separate areas around Abu Dhabi,” the ministry said in a statement accessed by Reuters.
This was the second attack in a matter of one week led by the Houthis on UAE soil. The Houthis and the coalition led by Saudi Arabia are fighting each other for more than six years leading to high number casualties in impoverished and war torn Yemen as well as on the other side.
The Saudi defence ministry also said that another missile fell in the southern part of the kingdom earlier on Sunday. It further added that two foreigners were injured and damages were sustained in an industrial area.
The attacks also came after the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on what it called Houthi targets in Yemen. At least 60 died at a temporary detention centre in northern Saada province last week on Friday and 20 were killed in the Houthi-held Sanaa on Tuesday last week.
The Yemen conflict, according to international observers, is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is trying to oust the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia sect, from Yemen for the past six years after the Iran-backed group ousted Yemen’s elected and internationally recognised government. The Houthis claim that they are fighting a corrupt government. Its recent aggression against the UAE comes after the Emirati nation increased its presence by backing Yemeni forces in the resource rich regions of the war torn nation. The UAE decreased military presence in Yemen after 2019.
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