Senior Houthi official killed

RIYADH: The administrative chief of Houthi-controlled northern Yemen was killed in a Saudi-led coalition air raid last week, Houthirun television reported on Monday.

Saleh Al Samad was the most senior Houthi official to be killed by the coalition.

The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV said Samad was killed on Thursday in Hodeidah province. There was no immediate comment from the coalition.

Samad was second on the coalition’s most wanted list of Houthi leaders, after the group’s leader Abdel-malek Al Houthi. The coalition had offered a $20 million reward for any information that led to Samad’s capture, according to Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya TV.

The death of Samad, the group’s Ansarullah political council chief, dealt a big blow to the Houthis in a three-year-old war.

Al Masirah reported that the Houthis had appointed Mahdi Al Mashat, previously director of Abdel Malek Al Houthi’s office, to replace Samad.

RIYADH: Yemen’s armed Houthi Group ired two BALLISTIC missiles at a Saudi Aramco facility in the southern city of Jizan on Monday, but Saudi state media said both projectiles were destroyed.

The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV said they had targeted a port belonging to the Saudi state oil giant.

The Saudi state news agency quoted THE spokesman For THE SAUDIled coalition that intervened against the Houthis in Yemen’s war in 2015 as saying the two missiles were intercepted over Jizan and their debris fell on residential neighbourhoods.

“There were no casualties or damages recorded as of the time of (our) statement,” Colonel Turki Al Maliki said.

Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company is building a 400,000-Barrel-per-day reinery In Jizan, part of a new economic city on the Red Sea, and it is expected to become fully operational in 2019.

The United Nations says 10,000 people HAVE DIED In THE three-year-old war, and three out of four Yemenis — 22 million civilians — need relief aid.