(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yemeni rebels flexed their muscles yesterday by firing a Scud missile at Saudi Arabia just days before they are to sit down with the exiled, Saudi-backed regime for peace talks in Switzerland.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted the missile fired by the Iran-backed Shia Houthis. The launch came a day after rebel allies killed four Saudi soldiers in cross-border attacks clouding preparations for UN-brokered talks in Geneva on June 14.
"The Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted it with two Patriot missiles," said the Saudi-led coalition, waging an air war against the rebels since March 26.
Coalition aircraft destroyed the launcher used in the 2.45am attack on the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, said the statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The missile was fired from south of the Houthi rebel bastion of Saada in Yemen's northern mountains, it added.
A pro-Houthi military spokesman told Yemen's rebel-controlled Saba news agency that the target was Prince Khaled Air Base. There has been cross-border artillery and rocket fire into Saudi Arabia but there was no missile attacks since air strikes began.
The coalition has made destroying missile capabilities of the Houthis and their allies a priority. But its spokesman Ahmed Al Assiri told Al Arabiya television that the rebels hid in caves some of the 300 missiles they were thought to have had prior to the campaign. Saudi forces had "thwarted over 300 rebel attempts to cross the border," he added, calling it an act of "desperation".
The coalition's latest raids targeted rebel military sites and positions in northern, central and southern Yemen, including Sana'a where weapons storage depots were struck on hills overlooking the capital. They carried out strikes in Amran, Hajjah, Saada and Lahj, where the rebel-held air base of Al Anad was bombed.
The interception of the Scud came after forces loyal to Saleh attacked locations on the Saudi border on Friday.
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