Arab Coalition thwarts Houthi missile and drone attack in Yemen

Attack aimed at government team overseeing ceasefire in Hodeidah

Houthi rebels pass a destroyed building in Hodeidah. EPA

The Arab Coalition in Yemen intercepted and destroyed three missiles and five drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday, a Joint Forces source said.

The attack was aimed at Al Makha city headquarters of a Yemeni government team overseeing the Houthi withdrawal from the port city of Hodeidah.

Aseel Al Sakladi, spokesman for Al Amalikah Brigades in Al Makha, on the country's west coats, said the Houthi attack took place early on Sunday morning.

Mr Sakladi said the attack “was targeting the offices of the government representatives in the Redeployment and Co-ordination Committee”.

“All the Houthi projectiles were intercepted and destroyed by Coalition air defences before reaching the target,” he said. No one was hurt.

The Yemeni government strongly condemned the attack and called on the UN not to ignore it.

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Saeed on Sunday told the state-owned Saba news agency that the continuous breaches of the Hodeidah agreement by the Houthis posed a serious threat.

Last week, a hospital providing treatment to thousands of Yemenis was reopened after it was destroyed in Houthi attacks on Al Makha on November 5, killing six people including three civilians.

Aid workers for Doctors without Borders (MSF) “resumed work after two weeks of suspension due to the severe damage the hospital and its warehouse of medical supplies suffered during a Houthi missile attack," said Sultan Mahmoud, director of Al Mokha district in western Taez province.

A Joint Forces source told The National the hospital had been reopened after the wards were repaired "and provided with all the equipment needed, with support from the Coalition," a Joint Forces source told The National.

Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, condemned the Houthi missile attack that forced the hospital to close.

“That is shocking and completely unacceptable,” Ms Grande said after the strikes.

“Hundreds of thousands of people along the western coast who need emergency assistance, including hundreds who need lifesaving surgery each month, won’t get the help they need because of these strikes.”

The hospital is the only centre providing emergency trauma, obstetric and surgical care to half a million people along the western coast.