The international coalition led by Saudi Arabia has reported this Thursday on the interception in the Medina region of a projectile which, it claims, was fired from Yemen by the Houthis. The rebel movement, for its part, has again denied the version from Riyadh and maintains that it does not attack this area, where one of the most sacred cities in Islam is located.
"Air defense systems have intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi terrorist militia toward the Medina region," the coalition spokesperson, Turki al Maliki, said in a brief statement released on social media, without providing data on injuries or material damage.
In response, the spokesperson for the Houthis' military operations, Yahya Sari, has emphasized that these accusations "represent a continuation of the blatant and serious slanders brought by the enemy". "Our operations have as their sole objective its oil facilities and military bases," he added.
Likewise, Sari stressed that "Yemen, land of wisdom and faith, is one of the nations that professes the most respect for sacred places; those who pose a threat to those places are precisely those who introduce into them acts of immorality and debauchery," according to a communiqué circulated on social media.
On another front, the Houthi spokesperson has taken responsibility for an attack against "reinforcements of the Saudi enemy" in the Yemeni province of Jauf, in the north of the country, without offering figures on casualties or any immediate reaction from the coalition based in Riyadh.
In the last few weeks, after the large-scale offensive that began on September 3 in western Yemen, the Houthis have carried out repeated missile and drone attacks against Saudi territory, even hitting several airports, in retaliation for the coalition's backing of the forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni Government.
As a response, troops loyal to the authorities recognized by the international community launched on October 4 a major offensive to attempt to regain areas recently taken by the Houthis and to try to advance toward the capital, Sana'a, controlled by the rebels since 2014, with direct support from the coalition headed by Riyadh.