JEDDAH: The Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by Houthi militias on Tuesday.
Coalition sources said the missiles were destroyed “above the Yemeni city of Maarib.” The missiles were directed at the Saudi city of Jazan.
This is the second time this week that the Houthis have targeted the Kingdom with the Iran-supplied missiles.
On Sunday, they fired a missile toward Taif. It was destroyed by the coalition forces but its debris landed 40 km from the holy city of Makkah, sparking outrage worldwide. The social networking website, Twitter, witnessed a wave of tweets condemning the missile attack on Taif. Muslims from around the world said that this attack has targeted all Muslims.
Hashtags of #HouthisStrikeMakkah and #TaifisFine trended internationally after the Saudi-led coalition confirmed the news of the attack.
All commenters using these hashtags said that this crime, targeting the Makkah region, is a evidence of the crimes of the Houthis and militias supporting Ali Abdullah Saleh who have no degree of morality and humanity.
Khalid Al-Yafei, a Yemeni political activist, said that this attack means the Houthis would target all Muslims. The Houthi coup against the legitimate government in Yemen shows that they would implement plans to kill and terrorize Muslims, he said.
Sultan Al-Qahtani, a public relations activist, said that the Houthi crime in targeting Makkah is clear evidence of their war crimes, but “we, as a people, will stand against them and stop their crimes.”