Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis announced on Saturday that they had launched missiles at Israel, entering the expanding conflict in the Middle East. Earlier, the Israeli military stated that it had detected a missile from Yemen, UNN reports with reference to CNN.
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The Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement announced on Saturday that it had launched ballistic missiles at Israel, marking its entry into the war.
"The Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of Almighty Allah and relying on Allah, carried out the first military operation using a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting important Israeli military facilities in the south of occupied Palestine," the statement said.
Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces stated that they had detected a missile launched towards Israel from Yemen and were working to intercept it.
The Houthi statement says that the operation is a direct response to "the ongoing military escalation, shelling of infrastructure, and committing crimes and massacres against our brothers in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Palestine."
Earlier, a Houthi representative told CNN that the group was ready to join the war in support of Iran if the US and Israel intensified their attacks.
The closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen - a bottleneck connecting the Red Sea to global shipping lanes - is a "viable option," Houthi Deputy Information Minister Mohammed Mansour said in a CNN report.
Meanwhile, Gulf countries continue to intercept attacks today, a month after the start of the war in the Middle East:
- debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused three fires near the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi, an industrial hub between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, authorities said. According to the press service of the Abu Dhabi authorities, six people were injured;
- Oman: Drones attacked the port of Salalah, the Omani news agency reported. One foreign worker was injured in the incident, and a crane was also damaged;
- Saudi Arabia: The Ministry of Defense stated that it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched towards the capital Riyadh;
- Bahrain: The country's Civil Defense extinguished a fire at a facility attacked by Iran, Bahrain's Interior Ministry announced this morning;
- Kuwait: A drone attack on Kuwait International Airport damaged its radar system, the Kuwaiti news agency reported, which also said that the country's National Guard had shot down six drones in the past 24 hours.
Saudi Arabian airbase hit by Iranian strike, 15 US servicemen injured - media28.03.26, 11:39