Saudi Arabia’s air defense intercepted and shot down a ballistic missile launched by rebels from the Ansar Ala (Houthis) movement that controls northern Yemen, Saudi agency SPA reported, adding that several people were injured.

The newspaper, citing a statement from the Arab coalition, says that the missile was shot down over the Saudi city of Najran, the administrative centre of the Saudi province of the same border with Yemen.

“The joint forces helped intercept and destroy the ballistic missile launched by the Iranian-backed terror group of Houthis from Sada province towards the city of Najran,” the text says.

According to the statement, the Houthis’ target was “civilian facilities and residents of Najran.”

Several civilians are reported to have been “slightly injured by ballistic missile shrapnel.”

Yemen has been experiencing an armed conflict since 2014 between supporters of President Abdo Rabu Mansur Hadi and the Houthi rebels of the Ansar Allah movement.

In March 2015, a Sunni military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which includes the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries, intervened in the conflict on Hadi’s side.

At the same time, the separatist Southern Transitional Council was created in Aden in 2017, which seeks to restore the independence of South Yemen and separate itself from the northern territories of the country, controlled by the Houthis.

In November 2019, the Yemeni government led by Hadi and the separatists of the Southern Transitional Council signed an agreement in Riyadh that seeks to end the armed conflict.