SANAA // Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile launched toward the kingdom from Yemen on Monday.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen said that Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted the missile at dawn on Monday as it headed toward the southwestern Saudi region of Asir.
Coalition forces responded by targeting the launch platform inside Yemeni territory.
Saudi Arabia has been targeted with missile and artillery fire on a number of occasions since it intervened in Yemen’s civil war last year in support of the internationally recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.
It comes as rival militants in Al Qaeda battled each other on Monday in the southern city of Zinjibar which is controlled by the group, in what appeared to be an internal power struggle that erupted after a senior militant was killed by a US drone.
The clashes broke out late Sunday, leaving at least seven militants dead and another nine wounded, according to Yemeni officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The rival factions are led by local commander known as Abu Anas Al Sanani and another known as Ossan Baliedy, the brother of Galal Baleedi, the leader who was killed along with three others in a drone strike on Thursday.
Baleedi headed Al Qaeda in Abyan province, of which Zinjibar is the capital, and was known for his brutality, including the beheading of Yemeni soldiers in August 2014. He was believed to be ideologically closer to the ISIL group, which is locked in a bitter rivalry with Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group’s Yemen affiliate is known, has attempted several attacks on the US homeland and has long been seen by US officials as the group’s most lethal affiliate.
It has exploited the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, which pits various forces loyal to the Hadi government against Houthi rebels and their allies. AQAP has seized a number of southern cities and towns, including the port city of Mukalla.
A Saudi-led coalition has been striking the Houthis since March 2015 and has also sent in ground troops. Riyadh and its allies are seeking to roll back gains by the Iran-backed rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who have seized the capital of Sanaa, and other parts of the country.
* Associated Press