[19/12/2017 03:50]

RIYADH-SABA
The Arab Coalition backing Yemen's government against the Houthis said the armed rebel militia's ballistic missile fired toward the Saudi capital was targeted at populated areas before the air defenses intercepted it.

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al-Maliki said that "the missile was indiscriminately launched towards Riyadh to target the civilian and populated areas."

He said: This hostile and indiscriminate act by the Iran-back Houthi armed group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting Houthi armed group with qualitative capabilities in a clear and blatant defiance of the UN resolution no. 2216 and resolution no. 2231 aiming to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as the regional and international security. Launching ballistic missiles towards populated cities and villages is contrary to the international humanitarian law."

He said that, at 01:39 p.m. today, the coalition air defense forces monitored a ballistic missile launched from the Yemeni territories towards the Kingdom's territories.

Al-Maliki called upon the international community to take serious steps to stop the Iranian transfer of ballistic weapons and related know-how to terrorist and outlawed groups and to hold the Persian state accountable for their support and defiant violation of the international law.

---