Gulf News

Al Houthi shelling kills 3 Saudi children

Missiles from Yemen hit civilian targets in Najran and Jazan

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Cross-border shelling from Yemen has killed three children in Saudi Arabia and wounded nine other people, the kingdom’s SPA news agency reported yesterday.

In one of the attacks, two Saudi girls were killed and five of their family members wounded when a rocket hit their home in the border region of Najran, SPA said.

In the same region, an 11-year-old boy was killed and his mother wounded in similar shelling, SPA cited civil defence authoritie­s as saying in a separate statement.

A third attack in the region of Jazan wounded a Saudi child and two women, one of them Ethiopian, another statement said.

All the attacks took place on Sunday.

Cross-border attacks from Yemen have intensifie­d since the suspension in early August of UN-brokered peace talks between Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels and their allies, and Yemen’s internatio­nallyrecog­nised government.

On Saturday, a rocket fired from Yemen killed a threeyear-old boy in Najran, where shelling struck a power station a day earlier.

The Arab coalition has also stepped up its air raids in Yemen since peace talks collapsed.

The coalition intervened in March last year to support President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi after Al Houthis and their allies seized swathes of Yemeni territory.

The latest rocket fire into Saudi Arabia from Al Houthi militants comes on the heels of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s announceme­nt of a new peace initiative.

The continuing rocket attacks appear to be a tacit rejection of a US-backed peace push which calls for a unity government, which Al Houthis have been pushing for.

Refusal to find solution

Observers say the move shows Al Houthis’ obstinate refusal to find a solution to the conflict despite concession­s made by the government.

The Al Houthi militant group put out a statement on Saturday promising to redouble its efforts on the battlefiel­d. The new peace push calls on Al Houthis to pull out of the capital and hand over their heavy weapons.

These include the ballistic missile weapons described by Kerry as a threat to Saudi Arabia and the region.

During a meeting in Jeddah last week with Gulf officials, Kerry said Washington was “deeply troubled” by rebel attacks on Saudi territory, where more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been killed in cross-border bombardmen­ts and skirmishes.

Kerry also said Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, had shipped missiles to Yemen.

 ?? AFP ?? Saudis wait next to a wreckage at a market for vehicles in the border city of Najran on Saturday, a week after it was struck by a rocket fired from Yemen.
AFP Saudis wait next to a wreckage at a market for vehicles in the border city of Najran on Saturday, a week after it was struck by a rocket fired from Yemen.

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