Saudi Arabia intercepts Yemen rebel missile as camp toll rises

Death toll from Friday's missile strike on army camp in Marib reaches 32, with 81 wounded.

RIYADH // A Yemeni rebel missile was intercepted over Saudi Arabia late Friday, a Saudi-led coalition said, as the death toll from a rebel attack on a Yemeni army camp rose to 32.

The rebels’ Saba news agency said the missile was aimed at offices of Saudi oil giant Aramco in the town of Jizan.

The coalition, which has been fighting the rebels in support of government forces for the past two years, said the missile was intercepted without casualties or damage.

The Yemeni army said the toll from Friday’s rebel rocket attack on its camp in Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, had risen to 32 dead and 81 wounded. Marib province is on the border with Saudi Arabia and most of it has been retaken by government forces.

Meanwhile in the south-western province of Taez, two senior Yemen rebels survived a Saudi-led coalition air raid on their convoy on Saturday that killed eight of their guards. The attack targeted a convoy carrying Abdu Al Jundi, who was appointed as the governor of Taez by the Houthi rebels, and Abu Ali Al Hakem, military commander of the same region. The eight guards were killed when two vehicles in the convoy were hit in the raid near the town of Burj.

Jundi and Hakem were able to escape and seek shelter in a nearby market, a rebel military source said.

In the western province of Hodeida, Saudi-led coalition aircraft carried out a series of strikes on a rebel training camp on Saturday, leaving “dozens of dead and wounded”, according to a military official. The camp, 70 kilometres east of Hodeidah city, is home to young recruits enlisted by the Houthis. Two weeks ago the rebels forced each district of Hodeida to send 30 young people there for conscription.

* Agence France-Presse