Sanaa TV revels as Houthi militants fire ballistic missile, but Saudis swat it down

Arab News

September 16, 2018

Jeddah, Sept 16: Houthi militants fired a ballistic missile toward Saudi Arabia early Saturday night, but Saudi air defenses shot it down before it could do any damage, a spokesman for coalition forces supporting Yemen’s legitimate government said.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki said the Saudi Air Defense Force spotted the missile being being launched at 7:15 p.m. (local time) from the Yemeni governorate of Saada toward the southern Saudi city of Jazan and intercepted it.

Al-Maliki accused the Houthis of deliberately targeting civilian and populated areas in the Kingdom, in willful violation of international law.

"This hostile act by the Houthi terrorist militia of Iran proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthi armed militias in clear defiance of the UN resolutions issued in this regard and a threat to the security of Saudi Arabia and regional and international security. The launching of ballistic missiles towards towns and villages In the population is contrary to international humanitarian law,” he said in a statement.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV station itself confirmed that the missile launch was meant to hit a populated area, according to a Reuters report.

“The (Houthi) rocket force fired a Badr ballistic missile at the Industrial City of Jizan,” Al-Masirah said, without saying when the attack took place.

The Iran-aligned Houthis regularly announce they have fired missiles over the Saudi-Yemeni border into Jizan province in an effort to hit important facilities, including an oil refinery operated by Saudi Aramco. Most of the missiles are intercepted by Saudi Air Defence Forces, using the US-supplied Patriot missile system.

The Houthis say their missile attacks are in retaliation for air raids on Yemen by the Western-backed coalition, which entered Yemen’s war in 2015 to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Hadi was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2015.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have accused Iran of arming the Houthis as part of the Tehran regime’s regionwide destabilization program in furtherance of its hegemonistic ideology.

The coalition, along with its Western allies, have shown proof of Iran’s support for the Houthis, including its supply of ballistic missiles.

Militants from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah of Lebanon, labelled as a “terrorist” group by the coalition and the US, have also been killed in battles with Yemeni government forces in the past months.

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Syrian Town erupts after Israeli forces enter Beit Jinn; heavy casualties reported

News Network

November 28,2025

Several Syrians were killed and more than two dozen others injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, amid intensified incursions by the occupying regime since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule.

Syrian state TV reported that the casualties occurred during an overnight Israeli assault involving helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside. The attack followed an Israeli military unit’s entry into the town, where they were surrounded by local residents, leading to gunfire and direct confrontations.

According to the report, “The occupation army’s helicopters and artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located at the foothills of Mount Hermon, resulting in 13 martyrs and 25 injured civilians.” The broadcaster did not specify the full extent of damage.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria confirmed that the shelling coincided with Israeli soldiers entering Beit Jinn, while artillery pounded surrounding areas. The broadcaster stated that the escalation began after local residents clashed with an Israeli patrol that had infiltrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.

Following a two-hour exchange of heavy fire, Israeli forces withdrew and repositioned on the hill of Butt al-Warda at the town’s outskirts.

Israeli media acknowledged that six soldiers were wounded in the clashes—three of them seriously—describing the confrontation as a “sudden ambush” that forced the deployment of reserve units and air support to secure an exit route. No further details were provided.

The aggression has fueled renewed displacement from Beit Jinn, with residents fleeing to nearby villages amid increasingly frequent Israeli attacks.

The raid came just a day after Israeli troops carried out another ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in Quneitra province. According to SANA, an Israeli unit in four vehicles entered the village, raided several homes, and later withdrew.

Syria condemned the repeated incursions as violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions, urging the international community to enforce compliance and pressure Israel to halt its operations and withdraw fully.

Israel has expanded its attacks across Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad government last year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize strategic positions.

Meanwhile, critics say the HTS-led interim government’s inaction and growing normalization gestures toward Israel have emboldened Tel Aviv to intensify its military operations. HTS, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, seized control of Damascus last December, formally ending Assad’s rule.

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