Houthis wage four attacks against Saudi Arabia
Shafaq News/ The Saudi-led coalition said early on Sunday that the Iran-aligned Houthi group launched four attacks on the kingdom that damaged civilian cars and homes but caused no casualties, state media reported.
Saudi state news agency (SPA) said one attack targeted a water desalination plant in the city of Al-Shaqeeq, an Aramco facility in Jizan, a power station in the southern Dhahran al Janub city, and a gas facility in Khamis Mushait.
State television al-Ekhbariya later cited the coalition as saying it had intercepted and destroyed three drones that targeted economic facilities. The coalition also foiled an attack on an Aramco Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in the Saudi city of Yanbu, state television reported.
The coalition fighting in Yemen since 2015 said the latest Houthi escalation by targeting economic and civil facilities was a response to a Gulf call for talks.
The Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plans to invite Yemeni parties including the Houthis for consultations in Riyadh this month, two Gulf officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Houthis said they would welcome talks with the Saudi-led coalition if the talks will take place in a neutral country, including some Gulf states, and that the priority is lifting "arbitrary" restrictions on Yemeni ports and Sanaa airport.
In a statement, the coalition added the latest escalation included ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles. It also said it is detecting and monitoring drones in the sky and has intercepted a ballistic missile that was targeted at civilians in Jizan.
