Saudi Arabia shot down a Scud missile fired into the Sunni kingdom early yesterday by Yemen’s Shiite rebels and their allies, the country’s official news agency reported, as a Saudi-led coalition said forces loyal to Yemen’s former president attacked “several locations” on the Saudi border.
A Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud at about 2:45am yesterday, near the southwestern Saudi Arabian city of Khamis Mushait, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. The agency did not report any casualties in the attack.
Saudis on social media Web sites reported hearing air raid sirens around the city during the attack.
The agency blamed Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies in forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Saudi Arabia leads a coalition targeting the rebels in airstrikes that began on March 26 in support of exiled Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Those strikes have targeted arms caches and other suspected Scud missile sites around the nation.
Meanwhile, momentum gathered toward UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, as Houthi rebels confirmed on Friday that they would attend negotiations aimed at ending weeks of war that has cost more than 2,000 lives.
The Geneva meeting, provisionally set for June 14, would be the first significant effort to stop the fighting, which has led to what the UN called a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Yemen’s government exiled in Riyadh also said it would attend.
The Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing the rebels, thought to be backed by Iran, and their allies for 10 weeks, early yesterday reported the second major ground attack of the war against Saudi territory.
“The Saudi armed forces today were able to repel an attack from the Yemeni side targeting several locations in Jazan and Najran,” a coalition statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said, referring to two Saudi border districts.
The attack, supported by Houthis, was coordinated by elements of the Yemeni Republican Guard loyal to Saleh and sparked an hours-long battle in which four Saudis lost their lives, the coalition said, adding that “dozens from the enemy were killed.”
Tensions have escalated between Riyadh and regional rival Iran because of the months-long fighting in Yemen, while rights groups have expressed concerns about the extent of civilian casualties.
“We accepted the invitation of the UN to go to the negotiating table in Geneva without preconditions,” said Daifallah al-Shami, a senior member of the rebels’ political wing.
Speaking to reporters, he added that the rebels “will not accept conditions” from other parties.
Saleh in recent weeks renewed calls for talks in Geneva between the Yemeni parties, as well as negotiations between Yemenis and Saudi Arabia.
Ezzedine al-Isbahi, information minister of the exiled Yemeni government, said it would also send a delegation to Switzerland.
He told reporters that the meeting would involve “consultations on implementing [UN Security Council] Resolution 2216,” which the council passed in April imposing an arms embargo on the Houthi rebels and demanded that they relinquish seized territory.
The negotiations would try to secure a ceasefire agreement on a Houthi withdrawal plan and increased deliveries of humanitarian aid, according to diplomats who attended the closed-door council briefing.
Since overrunning Sana’a in September last year, the Houthis have seized much of Yemen, prompting the bombing campaign in support of Hadi.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia feared that the Houthis would take over all of Yemen and move it into the orbit of Shiite Iran.
The council this week heard a report from new UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien, who described Yemen’s humanitarian crisis as “catastrophic,” with 20 million civilians — 80 percent of the population — in need of aid.
Medical and military sources said that at least 21 people have died in violent combat since Thursday in the Aden area, while there were intense coalition air raids against Daleh and Shabwa provinces.
The aid group Action Against Hunger reiterated its demand for the coalition to lift its air, land and sea blockade of Yemen, “of which civilians are the first victims.”
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