Ballistic missiles fired from Yemen target Westerners

Two ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels targeted the al-Dhafra air base, which the UAE shares with the US and France.

The missile attack followed warnings over the weekend by the Houthis that they would target the many western businesses based in the UAE.

Two ballistic missiles fired by rebels in Yemen were intercepted over Abu Dhabi yesterday, the explosions lighting up the night sky over one of the world’s key oil capitals.

Houthi rebels said they were aimed at the al-Dhafra air base, which the United Arab Emirates armed forces share with the United States and France, putting the Gulf’s western allies as well as their businesses in the cross-hairs as Yemen’s civil war crosses borders.

A Houthi spokesman said missiles had also targeted Dubai, the UAE’s second city 90 miles along the coast from Abu Dhabi. There was no immediate sign of missiles landing there or being intercepted, however.

The Emirati air force immediately hit back. The defence ministry in Abu Dhabi said an F-16 jet had struck the missile launchpad used by the Houthis in al-Jawf province, north-east of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, which they control.

The Houthis, backed by Iran, are fighting Yemen’s UN-recognised government, which is supported by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. They made advances through central Yemen all last year, and were laying siege to the city of Marib, near the main oil-producing region, when a UAE-supported and trained force intervened last month. It managed to drive the Houthis back on a key front south of Marib.

In retaliation, the Houthis on Monday of last week struck an oil storage facility near Abu Dhabi with explosive drones, killing three workers, two Indian and one Pakistani.

The Saudi-led coalition struck back with a series of air raids, wiping out Yemen’s internet via a single strike on the port of Hodeida and then hitting a detention facility in the northern city of Saada. According to the latest figures, 87 people, mainly African migrants being held there, were killed.

Yesterday’s missile attack followed warnings over the weekend by the Houthis that they would target the many western businesses based in the UAE. They include oil giants and arms companies in Abu Dhabi, together with finance, trade and tourism companies, particularly in Dubai and Jebel Ali port. They won significant support from their backers in Tehran. Kayhan, a hardline newspaper associated with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bore a photograph of Dubai’s skyscrapers under the headline “Evacuate the UAE’s business towers” and quoted Houthi officials warning of more strikes.

The UAE has invested heavily in air defences in recent years, however. The videos of the two missiles being intercepted over Abu Dhabi, at about 4.15am, showed a trajectory familiar from American-made Patriot missile interceptors, which the UAE is known to possess.

The Times