Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allies of Iran, claim drone attacks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the first time Tuesday claimed missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, drawing their main sponsor Iran closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and further raising the risks of a regional conflict erupting.

The Houthis had been suspected of an attack earlier this month targeting Israel by sending missiles and drones over the crucial shipping lane of the Red Sea, an assault that saw the US Navy shoot down the projectiles.

This time on Tuesday, however, Israel said its own fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defense system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014 as part of that country's ruinous war, claimed three attacks on Israel in a later military statement, without elaborating on the timeframe of the operations and whether Tuesday's salvos represented one or two attacks.

Beyond the attack that saw the United States shoot down missiles, there had been a mysterious explosion Thursday that hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel.

The blast, which Egyptian authorities have not explained, wounded six people.

For Israel, Tuesday's attack marked an incredibly rare reported in-combat use of the Arrow missile defense system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space, according to the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies.