![Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committee, supporting forces loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, flash their arms in the country's third-city Taez during clashes with the Houthis on November 21st, 2016. [Ahmad al-Basha/AFP]](/cnmi_am/images/2017/12/01/10564-yemen-conflict-700_496.webp)
Saudi Arabia on Thursday (November 30th) intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired from war-torn Yemen, state media reported, the second such attack this month claimed by Iran-backed Houthis (Ansarallah).
The missile targeted the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, with authorities reporting no casualties, just hours after the Houthis threatened to retaliate over a blockade on Yemen.
A Saudi-led coalition against the opposition fighters imposed the blockade in response to a Houthi missile that was intercepted near Riyadh airport on November 4th.
The missile attacks, which could further escalate the coalition's military campaign, underscore how the raging Yemen conflict is increasingly spilling across the border, threatening Saudi towns and villages.
The Houthi-run Al-Masira television channel said Thursday's missile hit a military target inside Saudi Arabia, but the coalition contradicted that claim.
"The missile heading towards the city of Khamis Mushait was intercepted and destroyed without any casualties," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki as saying.
Hours earlier opposition chief Abdulmalik al-Houthi threatened to retaliate if the blockade was prolonged.
"Should the blockade continue, we know what (targets) would cause great pain and how to reach them," he said in a speech broadcast on Al-Masira.
The Houthis this month warned that they considered "airports, ports, border crossings and areas of any importance" in Saudi Arabia, as well as its ally the UAE, legitimate targets.
'Stopping the flow of arms'
The coalition, which accuses the Houthis of being a proxy for Iran, justifies the blockade saying it is meant to stop the flow of arms to the opposition fighters from Tehran.
Earlier this month Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said arming Yemen's Houthis could be considered an "act of war".
Iran denies it is supplying the Houthis with arms.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said Friday it has seized thousands of weapons and hundreds of smugglers illegally crossing over from Yemen in the past year, as "foreign agents" looked to stage attacks in the kingdom.
Border guard data from October 2016 to September 2017 released by the Saudi Interior Ministry said over 3,500 weapons and stashes of ammunition were captured.
"Most arms were seized on the Saudi-Yemeni border," the statement said, adding that the "seizures come amid attempts by foreign agents to organise terrorist attacks in kingdom".
The statement said 4,656 suspects were arrested at the frontier in connection with attempted smuggling, "over half" of them from Yemen.
