Saudi Arabia shoots down a ballistic missile from Yemen, may reconsider the ceasefire

Ahmed Abbas
2 Min Read

Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile coming from Yemen and is now reconsidering the ceasefire which was enforced in April, the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen said in a statement.

“The coalition command asserts that violating the truce by the Houthi militia and its supporters is the targeting of the kingdom’s lands,” the statement read.

The coalition added in statement that this is the second missile to be shot down in a month. The air defence units destroyed the base from where the missile was launched.

The Houthis and the Saudi-backed government are now holding peace talks in Kuwait to end the 14-month long conflict which has killed 6,200 people until now. Both sides have not yet reached any solutions.

Reports said that both sides agreed to do prisoners swap in June before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The crisis in Yemen escalated when the Houthis seized some cities including the capital Sana’a in 2014.

Saudi Arabia and an Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore “the legitimacy” of president Hadi Mansour.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State (IS) have taken advantage of Yemen’s political unrest to expand in some locations across the country.

The US army announced earlier this month that a small contingent of troops has been sent to Yemen to aid the Arab coalition, in particular the United Arab Emirates, in the fight against (AQAP).

Recently, US troops helped Emirati forces seize the city of Mukalla, which AQAP took control of last year amid security unrest.

The Pentagon also announced that US forces recently carried out attacks on AQAP locations in Yemen outside Mukalla port.

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Ahmed Abbas is a journalist at DNE’s politics section. He previously worked as Egypt based reporter for Correspondents.org, and interned as a broadcast journalist at Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. Abbas is a fellow of Salzburg Academy of Media and Global Change. He holds a Master’s Degree of Journalism and New Media from Jordan Media Institute. He was awarded by the ICFJ for best public service reporting in 2013, and by the German foreign office for best feature in 2014.
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