Image source: EPA
The Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen announced, on Wednesday, the interception and destruction of two drones launched by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) in the Makkah Al-Mukarramah region and the southern region of Saudi Arabia.
Coalition Forces spokesman, Turki Al-Maliki, said that the Joint Defense Forces intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles in the western region of the Kingdom.
Earlier Wednesday, Al-Maliki announced the interception and destruction of three cruise missiles launched by the group towards the capital, Riyadh.
These attacks come as the Houthis continue to launch missiles and drones towards targets inside Saudi Arabia, including airports, ports and oil facilities, since the outbreak of the war that began with a US-Israeli attack on Iran last February.
The eastern Saudi region, which contains the majority of the Kingdom's oil and gas reserves and the headquarters of Aramco, has been subjected to repeated attacks in recent weeks, and an attack that occurred last October caused severe damage to the company's headquarters, according to the original text.
In the same context, explosions occurred on Wednesday in the city of Aden in southern Yemen, the temporary headquarters of the internationally recognized government, according to what two police sources told Agence France-Presse.
The two sources said that two missiles targeted a coalition camp in the west of the city, while a third missile targeted a camp in its center.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Aden since fighting renewed in July after a truce that lasted from 2022.
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Large crowds gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to mourn dozens of people killed last Saturday in raids for which the Houthis, who are supported by Iran, held Saudi Arabia responsible.
The raids, which targeted homes in the village of Al-Shariya, resulted in the killing of more than forty people, including about twenty children. The coffins were carried covered with white cloth, and on them were placed pictures and names of the victims.
The United Nations reports that since fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition resumed in July, more than 1,600 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes.
Rain and strong winds exacerbate the suffering of displaced people in the camps of the Yemeni Hajjah Governorate
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The suffering of the displaced people living in temporary camps in the Yemeni Hajjah Governorate worsened after a depression struck the country on Tuesday, accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds.
The fragile tents were unable to resist the weather conditions, and they collapsed on top of their occupants, injuring some of them while they were sleeping, while the displaced families remained without alternative places to shelter as the weather fluctuations continued.
A Yemeni woman told the BBC's "Middle East Diary" program that the rain fell torrential rains, but the displaced people had nothing to protect them from, adding: "We do not have mattresses or covers to protect us from the rain."
A Yemeni citizen said that the severe storms left the residents homeless, noting that none of the organizations came to help them. He added: “We have no place to turn to, and no organization came to help us. We are suffering a lot.”
Another citizen recounted how their shelter collapsed on top of his mother during the storm, causing her to lose consciousness. He said: “We were exposed to a strong storm accompanied by heavy rains. Our hut collapsed on top of my mother, causing her to lose consciousness. We have no place to go, and no relief aid has arrived at all,” adding that he does not have a family of his own and that they have nothing.
In another testimony, a Yemeni citizen described the collapse of their straw shelter due to wind and rain, saying that he was inside the shelter talking with his children when the storm hit the area, before the structure collapsed on top of them and rainwater flowed inside, adding that they were able to retrieve some covers.
Image source: Saudi Press Agency
On the diplomatic level, the interior ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries held a meeting on Wednesday in the Bahraini capital, Manama.
The Saudi Minister of Interior, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud, considered that “the exceptional circumstances and the extremely sensitive regional and international changes and the challenges they pose” require moving from the stage of responding to security events to anticipating them and preparing in advance to confront them, through comprehensive executive plans and intensifying coordination and joint work efforts, as he put it.
The Saudi minister added that the security of the GCC countries is an indivisible whole, and that any threat to which any country is exposed “represents a direct threat to the entire Gulf system.”
He stressed that the Ansar Allah Houthi movement's targeting of civilians and civilian and economic objects in his country are "acts that cannot be justified under any pretext or form due to the threat they pose to the lives of civilians and their profound impact on security and stability in the Republic of Yemen and the region."
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