Two injured in Houthi missile attack in southwestern Saudi Arabia

Two people were injured from a missile fired into southwestern Saudi Arabia by Houthi militants in Yemen. (File photo / AFP)

JEDDAH: Two people were injured on Friday from a missile fired into southwestern Saudi Arabia by Houthi militants in Yemen.
Col. Yahya Abdullah Al-Qahtani, a Civil Defense spokesman in Jazan, said teams were dispatched on Friday morning after a residential property was hit by a projectile launched by the Iranian-backed group.
A Yemeni woman and a Saudi national were injured when the residential area in Samtah was hit.
The attack comes as momentum builds owards peace between the internationally recognized government and the Houthis in Sweden next month.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government insisted it was committed to peace on Thursday as momentum built toward talks in Sweden next month.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Thursday insisted his government was committed to peace and has already said his administration would attend the latest attempt at a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
But his statement to mark Yemen’s Independence Day was overshadowed on Thursday by another attempt by the militia to fire a ballistic missile toward Saudi Arabia, which is part of an Arab Coalition supporting the government.
The coalition said it had destroyed a missile launch platform in Saada province before the missile could be launched.
The peace talks will take place after fierce fighting this month around Hodeidah, which resulted in pro-government troops advancing deep into the port city.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday the international body is “working hard to ensure the start of meaningful peace talks in Yemen” before the end of the year.
Previous talks have collapsed with little progress, and in September the Houthi delegation did not even arrive for negotiations in Geneva.
The Houthi militia on Thursday said they would attend talks in Sweden if guarantees to ensure they can leave home and return back are maintained.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths has held talks separately in the past few days with officials from both sides.
According to UN figures, nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition joined the conflict in 2015 to bolster Hadi after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.
The war has triggered what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.