Saudi Arabia intercepts missile it says Houthis fired at east
No damage or casualties were reported, and authorities said the threat to the cities of Dammam, Al-Ahsa and Abqaiq had passed.
A missile launched by Yemen's Houthi movement, which is backed by Iran, was aimed at Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, according to Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Anadolu News Agency reported.
Air defenses intercepted and destroyed the missile before it hit its target, he said.
Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense Directorate sounded emergency alerts in Dammam, Al-Ahsa and Abqaiq. Officials said a short time later that the danger was over.
Yemen's conflict started in 2014, when Houthi fighters took Sanaa, the capital, along with several other provinces. A year later, a Saudi-led military coalition stepped in to back Yemen's internationally recognized government.
Clashes between government troops and the Houthis have grown more intense in recent months. Over that time the group has fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi territory again and again. Some of those attacks were aimed at aviation facilities, which the coalition has long said it is committed to protecting.
A ballistic missile travels in a high, curving path before it drops toward its target, so air defense systems are built to destroy it while it is still in the air.
The Eastern Province is the center of the kingdom's oil industry. Its major facilities include the Abqaiq processing plant, one of the cities where the alert went off.
