(Dubai) The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it intercepted, for the third time this month, a ballistic missile launched by Yemeni Houthi rebels.
Posted at 6:53 p.m.
“Air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Houthi terrorists targeting our country,” the UAE defense ministry said in a statement.
The debris from the missile fell in an unpopulated area and no casualties were reported, officials in the Emirates said the attack had no impact on air traffic.
The ministry adds that it destroyed the Houthi missile launcher in Yemen, without specifying its location.
The Emirates say they are “fully prepared to face any threat” and take “all necessary measures to protect the United Arab Emirates from any attack”.
This attack is the third against the Emirates since the beginning of January. On the 17th, a drone and missile attack killed three people in Abu Dhabi, and on the 24th, two ballistic missile launches were intercepted by US forces based in the Emirati capital.
Visit of the Israeli President
The attack coincides with Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s first official visit to Abu Dhabi since the two countries normalized relations in 2020.
In a statement, the office of the Israeli president assured that he “would continue his visit as planned”.
The Houthis have so far made no comment, but said they would issue a statement “in the next few hours” on an operation in the Emirates.
The Emirates are part of a Saudi-led military coalition that has supported the government of Yemen since 2015 against the Iran-backed Houthis. The Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen in 2019, but remains an influential player in the conflict.
An Emirati official told AFP on Thursday that Houthi attacks would not become a “new normal” for the Emirates, promising a robust defence.
“We refuse to accept the threat of Houthi terror that targets our people and our way of life,” the official added.
Houthi rebels have threatened further attacks on the United Arab Emirates, which hosts US troops and is one of the world’s biggest arms buyers.
Terrorist organization
“The UAE has world-class defense capabilities and is constantly seeking to update them,” the official said, adding that the Houthi rebels “must be” designated as a terrorist organization.
The multiplication of Houthi attacks against the Emirates, a wealthy Gulf country which holds to its reputation as an oasis of peace in the Middle East, opens a new page in the war in Yemen unleashed in 2014.
In more than seven years of war, all parties to the conflict have been accused of “war crimes” by UN experts. Implicated for multiple “blunders”, the coalition has recognized “mistakes”, but accuses the rebels of using civilians as human shields.
The UN has been trying in vain for several years to put an end to this devastating conflict which, according to it, has killed 377,000 people and pushed a population of 30 million to the brink of famine in Yemen, the poorest country in the world. Arabian Peninsula.
Iran denies supplying weapons to the Houthis as accused by Saudis and Americans.